Manchester-based Elysium Theatre Company has released a second set of online Covid-19 Monologues – days after receiving an award for its support of new writers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Elysium produced its first set of coronavirus monologues for its YouTube channel last year, after lockdown theatre closures. Earlier this month Elysium won the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s Olwen Wymark award, instituted in 2005 to encourage new writing.
Due to the success of its first group of monologues, Elysium has released a second set of five (which you can find here), two written by and featuring familiar faces on the Manchester arts scene, with others created by writers and performers from across the country.
Among the five are the comedy-drama Oh By The Way, I Hate Myself by Hannah Ellis Ryan, performed by Laura Littlewood, about a daughter’s thoughts about her mother on the day of the latter’s funeral, and I Just Called To Say… by Rani Moorthy, performed by Alex Townson, in which a young man watches his father in ICU on his tablet. As he hopes for his father’s survival, he unburdens himself about their relationship.
And if you want to refresh your memory, here are the first four monologues.