The Curve

<p>Loneliness fear bad dreams repressed attraction or repugnance lockdown and sudden escapes jigsaw puzzles food deliveries bad tempers and penguins. These were the things that stole our sleep for a year or that rescued haunted and comforted us. </p><p>In the early days of Covid lockdown in 2020 playwrights Vanessa Bates Mary Rachel Brown Suzie Miller Lachlan Philpott and Katie Pollock came together in a virtual writing group to support each other and spur each other on. There were only two rules: deliver a piece every Monday inspired by events of the previous week; and show up online to read them out. Write down show up read out. </p><p>A selection of these pieces have been gathered together in <em>The Curve</em> a live performance filmed and streamed by Critical Stages Touring. Like a modern-day journal of the plague year this collection of monologues and scenes is a time capsule reflecting the lived experience of these five playwrights during the Covid-19 pandemic. With humour drama surprise and searing honesty this collection is a deep interrogation of what it means to be alive during 'extraordinary times'.</p>