Unprecedented times: Headlong's digital response to the Covid-19 crisis

Writer, actor and director Nathaniel Martello-White was one of the people in Herrin’s address book. He starred in Herrin’s production of Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places and Things in London and New York and was already under commission from Headlong to adapt his award-winning short film Cla’am for the stage. He has been spending lockdown at his new flat in Crystal Palace, having recently finished filming Lucy Prebble’s new Sky comedy-drama I Hate Suzie with Billie Piper.

“I had to think about whether I wanted to do it for a second,” he says of signing up to Headlong’s Unprecedented. “There were other projects, other targets that were pressing. But then I thought that if I could just hit pause on all that and create something in the now, something in the spirit of what is going on, something reflective of this very unusual time, then that would be valuable and cathartic.”

Following the brief
Martello-White is one of the 14 writers involved in Unprecedented, part of a list that includes April De Angelis, John Donnelly, James Graham, Macmillan and Prasanna Puwanarajah. Their brief was simple: the plays had to be 10-minutes long, the actors could only use the locations they were in and the objects they had at their disposal, and it all had to be made through Zoom. They had to “rigorously observe the rules of isolation”, as Herrin puts it.

“It was all about embracing the restrictions,” says Martello-White. “And thematically, we were asked to use what we were thinking and feeling about the pandemic personally. ‘Start from you.’ That’s what Jeremy told me to do. ‘Start from you.’”

The short piece that Martello-White came up with is tricky to explain. It is called Central Hill, after the area of Crystal Palace in which he lives, and is a kind of meta-apocalyptic-thriller, a 10-minute horror film within a horror film. Julian Barratt plays a director desperately trying to keep his shooting schedule on track while the world collapses around him. It’s the result, Martello-White says, of his current interest in “elevated horror” and the work of film directors Jordan Peele and Bong Joon-ho.

“When the stockpiling started, and you would go to a supermarket and every shelf was empty, it was a bit like a zombie movie and it felt like we were quite close to some disastrous situation,” he says. “So I was quite inspired by that as well, but I also wanted to write something funny, because I don’t think anybody wants to watch anything depressing right now.”

Usually, Martello-White would catch a train into central London and work at the Southbank Centre, where he has a membership. He likes to sit at the same table every day, look out on to the Thames and write for several hours. The lockdown means this is no longer possible, and his challenge was to replicate it as best he could at home.

’When the stockpiling started it was a bit like a Zombie movie – I was inspired by that’ – Writer, actor and director Nathaniel Martello-White

“Fortunately, I’m quite good at focusing on one thing at a time and getting something done,” he says. “I just worked at the kitchen table in my flat where [I have] a good view of the city, zoned out and wrote it in one go in four or five hours. It felt like I needed to do it like that, like when you’re cycling and you feel the need to blitz a hill in one go, otherwise it will be too much for you.”

Martello-White says that he hopes Central Hill “provides some excitement” when it airs, but he is wary of aggrandising art and artists at a time like this. That, in fact, is one of the central themes of his piece.

“I feel that art is important, but of course what nurses and doctors and people on the front line are doing is way more significant,” he says. “I wanted to make a comment on that difference. I wanted to point out that there is another narrative that’s a bit more important than what artists are doing at the moment.”

Martello-White is not just writing Central Hill, he’s also directing it over Zoom as one of 11 directors attached to the 14 digital plays. Ned Bennett, Deborah Bruce and Blanche McIntyre are also involved.

Herrin himself is directing two, as is Brian Hill, the BAFTA-winning managing director of Century Films, who is spending the lockdown at home with his wife in Blackheath.

“Usually I would be at our office in east London all day, or away somewhere on location, so I’m actually enjoying being at home with my wife,” he says.

“We go to separate rooms to work during the day, then meet up in the kitchen at lunchtime. When I get a bit stir-crazy, I go for a run or cycle ride in Greenwich Park. Coronavirus is a catastrophe for the world, but on a personal level I’m quite enjoying it. It feels wrong to say it but it’s true. I’m getting so much done. The snacking is an issue, though.”

Century Films produces both drama and documentary for film and television, focusing mainly on social issues and regularly breaking the boundaries of genre – the company essentially invented the ‘musical documentary’ format in the early 2000s with films including Feltham Sings, Songbirds and Pornography: The Musical. Working on Unprecedented then, says Hill, was “meat and drink”.

He continues: “At the start, it was pretty unclear what everybody’s role would be. Then I had a chat with Jeremy and we decided that I could direct a couple of plays myself, and also have overall responsibility for liaising with other directors whose first medium is theatre and who might not be too familiar with the conventions of filmmaking.”

Tech troubles
Some things were straightforward. With the play, the director and the cast finalised for each individual work – casting, like everything else, was done using video-conferencing – rehearsals could take place “like normal, apart from the fact that no one is in the same room”. Other things, though, were not.

“The actors have to take responsibility for everything themselves, from the costume to the make-up to the set design,” Hill says. “Then we had to give them a list of what they needed to do to film it. They have to put an ident on like a clapperboard at the start of each take. They have to say: ‘Cut’ at the end of a take. We had to introduce the principles of a film shoot into these theatre productions.”

’The actors have to take responsibility for everything themselves, from the costume to the make-up to the set design’ – Managing director of Century Films Brian Hill

Hill even called on his regular director of photography, José Caldeira, and asked him to dip in and out of the project’s 14 virtual rehearsal rooms, advising directors and actors on how to compose each play, shot by shot. “He would tell them to move tables over to a window,” says Hill. “Or to put baking paper over a light to soften it a bit. Things like that.”

Technical trouble was never far away, though. One problem became obvious immediately: the quality of Zoom’s conference calls is nowhere near high enough to broadcast, so how could actors capture their own performances while simultaneously interacting with each other in a conference call?

“We talked about delivering webcams and microphones to people, but because there are 57 different actors, that was just impossible budget-wise,” Hill says. “In the end, we figured out that most people have MacBooks and could record themselves on QuickTime, which is not dependent on a Wi-Fi signal and is higher quality, and can run alongside Zoom as well.”

Then, there were unexpected obstacles, such as actors and their intermittent internet connections. “One of the plays, April De Angelis’ House Party, has nine actors and it’s a comedy so it relies on timing,” says Hill. “If the gags are going to land, they have to be delivered at exactly the right time, and if there’s one faulty Wi-Fi connection it’s just not going to work. But somehow it will. You just think: ‘What are you doing?’,” he laughs. “ ‘You’re a famous actor and you haven’t even got good Wi-Fi.’ ”