Lucy Nordberg – Lucy Nordberg

King Arthur

Lucy Nordberg — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 10:13:00 +0000

The play

Written in a mix of accessible modern blank verse and prose, King Arthur moulds the Shakespearean form for our time. Frustrated by outmoded customs that limit himself and his people both personally and politically, the King tries to impose democracy throughout his Kingdom. This bold decision begins a chain of events with repercussions for his wife Guinevere, his son Mordred, and his closest allies – and it will seal the fate of all his people.

Spectacular modern take on a legend
Edinburgh Evening News

The debates raised by this bold piece of theatre will linger with you long after the play has ended
The List

Politicians should be made to see this play
Richard Demarco CBE, Demarco European Art Foundation

Theatre Performance

King Arthur

King Arthur theatre production

The productions

The play has had two theatrical productions so far: one I produced in collaboration with Edinburgh-based theatre company Siege Perilous at the Edinburgh Festival, and another by Siege Perilous in association with the Demarco European Art Foundation, as a promenade performance in the grounds of Craigcook Castle. Over 30 actors – ranging in experience from established West End professionals to promising newcomers – have taken part in the productions.

Full of tragic betrayal, raw emotion and slick performances…a traditional play reinvented with a topical twist.
Laura Webb, Three Weeks

An inspired piece of writing…a progressive and interesting take on classic tale…enjoy.
Barry Gordon, Edinburgh Evening News

My use of blank verse in a modern work has led to an involvement in education, as well as generating academic interest. Read more here.

Promenade performance

King Arthur promenade performance

Since medieval times the stories about King Arthur have been the most well-known of all English myths. Rewriting them in blank verse is a temptingly traditional way to transform familiar stories into modern drama. All too easily, it can become regrettably ponderous, a pseudo-Shakespearean pattern of speech. That temptation is avoided beautifully and effortlessly throughout in King Arthur. In this modernised version, we are made to adapt our expectations from what we recall of the legend. Instead we focus on the modernity of the problem, where Arthur proposes to democratise his court. The twists this version of the myth sets out contrast intriguingly with our usual conclusions about the Camelot story. As a modern dramatic recasting of one of the oldest and most popular of British legends, it makes the ancient myth thoroughly modern.
Professor Andrew Gurr, chief academic advisor to the project to rebuild the Globe Theatre in London, and best known for his books on Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

When All the Crowds Have Gone

Lucy Nordberg — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:36:00 +0000

The play

At the height of his success, moving into his new mansion with his new wife, media tycoon John is dwelling on his past and how he will be judged by future generations. In an attempt to control his legacy, he persuades his younger brother to write his biography. But when John revives his wife’s career by embroiling his TV presenter neighbour in a scandal, long-buried tensions between the brothers threaten to topple his empire. Can John keep control of the players in his game?

The more I reflect on this play, the more I’m convinced it brings a fresh perspective to the human dilemma.
Fringe Guru

First performed at Brighton Fringe Festival, where it was well-received by audiences and critics, the play is about storytelling – the high-value stories that generate clicks and sell papers, and the ones we tell ourselves to make sense of our lives. Featuring a film-within-a-play, and with characters involved in biography, film, acting, social media, TV shows, newspapers, and even poetry, the play shows that although the media industry gets most of the blame for distorting facts, every method of presenting a story to an audience can involve manipulation or lead to misunderstanding.

When All the Crowds Have Gone

360 Immersive Film

The play works on stage in front of a live audience. But there is another possible format for this story, that fully delves into its theme and allows the audience into the narrative and become aware of their effect on it. Filming the story as an immersive 360 film was an intriguing choice as a medium with the potential to add another layer and draw people further in.

In collaboration with Fusebox – a hub for digital innovators and creative entrepreneurs in Brighton – we filmed the first section of the play with a 360 camera. I experimented with new methods of writing for this immersive medium, adding a framing device to the plot while keeping the central part of play intact.

The experienced actors – Justin Hayward, John Locke, Jenny Knight and Kirsten Callaghan – were keen to investigate the exciting possibilities of 360 film, and adapted their performances style to suit. Chris Chowen and Chandler Dagg from Fusebox helped to capture and edit the footage.

The viewer wears a VR helmet to watch the edited scene, with the ability to experience everything going on around them. Although they are still essentially an observer, at times they are spoken to by the actors, and gradually come to realise that they are in fact a character central to the action of the story and its outcome.

The play can continue to be produced as it is, on stage, while there are possibilities for a full immersive 360 film version, viewed either as a full film or with each scene as a separate episode.

Reviving Renaissance

Lucy Nordberg — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 09:53:25 +0000

Political Drama by Jessica Winston, Professor of English, Idaho State University

Near the beginning of Lucy Nordberg’s play, King Arthur announces a plan to change the government from a monarchy to democracy. He explains:

I can ensure
My choice of heir is just, but every King
Is inconsistent with the last, and so
Not all are guaranteed benevolent.
My country needs a safeguard. I propose
To give each citizen a voice, and let
Their influence be felt in government.

The proclamation sets the plot in motion: the play represents various factions as they intrigue to grab power for themselves. In many ways this play looks to the past: it is set in a legendary Arthurian court, and, as in Arthur’s proclamation, it is written in verse form popularized in the English Renaissance, blank verse—that is, unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Yet with Arthur’s declaration, the plot also looks to the present, inviting the audience to reflect on politics in our own time: how can politicians secure their legacy? To what extent is it possible, or advisable, to involve the masses in government? Indeed, in its combination of legendary subject matter, blank verse, and contemporary political resonance, King Arthur resonates with, revives, and makes new a dramatic tradition of blank verse political drama that dates back to mid-sixteenth-century England.

In the mid- to late-sixteenth century, groups of writers affiliated with the London-based law schools and legal societies, the Inns of Court, composed and performed a series of innovative blank verse dramas that invited audiences to reflect on the politics of their own time. The most significant of these is Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton’s Gorboduc (1562), the first blank verse tragedy in English. The play presents ancient British history, telling the story of King Gorboduc, who announces that he will forgo a patrilineal monarchy and instead divide the realm between his sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The decision sparks a disastrous civil war in which both sons, the king, and the queen die violently, leaving the realm open to foreign invasion. Sackville and Norton composed Gorboduc in the winter of 1561–2, and the play was first performed for members of their own inn of court, the Inner Temple, and then at court for the relatively new queen, Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603). Scholars have widely recognized the contemporary political relevance of the play, seeing in the foreign invader, the Scottish Fergus, Duke of Albany, a possible allusion to the threat of Mary Queen of Scots to the English throne, and in the debated succession, an allusion to contemporary concerns surrounding the succession and the potential marriage of Elizabeth. As the play closes, several high ranking counsellors argue that decisions involving succession should not rest solely with the monarch, but should be deliberated in parliament. The character Eubulus, whose name means “wise counsellor” states:

Parliament should have been holden,
And certain heirs appointed to the crown,
To stay the title of established right
And in the people plant obedience
While yet the prince did live whose name and power
By lawful summons and authority
Might make a parliament to be of force
And might have set the state in quiet stay.

In these moments, the play thus employed blank verse and historical distance to invite audiences to reflect on current political topics and debates.

Gorboduc initiated a vogue for blank verse political tragedy at the Inns of Court. In 1566, George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmersh, both members of Gray’s Inn, composed Jocasta. Based on the myth of Oedipus, the play details the civil war between Oedipus’ sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, following the discovery of Oedipus’s crimes. In the later 1560s, a group of men from the Inner Temple composed the Tancred and Gismond. Based on a story by Boccaccio, this tragedy follows the efforts of the King, Tancred, to prevent his daughter, Gismond, from marrying her beloved, a Count named Guishard. These events lead to Tancred’s murder of Guishard, and to Gismond and Tancred’s suicides. Scholars have recognized that both tragedies, written in the blank verse style of Gorboduc, would likewise have been understood in light of ongoing contemporary concerns about Queen Elizabeth I’s potential marriage alliances and the establishment of a succession.

Nordberg’s King Arthur revives this tradition, a revival that is especially evident in light of one final sixteenth-century blank verse tragedy that takes up Arthurian legend: The Misfortunes of Arthur. Composed by several writers from Gray’s Inn in the later 1580s, the play was performed Elizabeth I at her palace at Greenwich. In Misfortunes, Arthur has been absent from the realm to fight battles for foreign lands, and his son, Mordred, takes advantage of this absence to make a power grab at home, events that lead, like Gorboduc, to civil war and to the death of Arthur and Mordred. Like Gorboduc and the other Inns of Court plays, Misfortunes also invited its audience to reflect on contemporary politics, although, unlike Gorboduc, the authors asked the audience to see the contrasts rather than echoes between stage and life. The prologue to the play explicitly praises Elizabeth I, stating that “Since your sacred majesty / In gracious hands the regal sceptre held, / All tragedies are fled from state to stage.” This comment been understood as a reference to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, just over a year before, an event that finally eliminated her and the Catholic threat she represented to the English throne.

One might wonder why this tradition of blank verse political drama developed at the Inns of Court in the Renaissance. The answer is complicated, but one partial answer is this: From the midsixteenth and through the mid-seventeenth century, young, ambitious men, usually sons of the nobility and landed gentry, came to the Inns of Court in the hopes of gaining useful legal education and an urban sophistication that would allow them to thrive at court and elite social circles. It makes sense that these men, looking to law and state service in their future, might have seen in political drama an opportunity to exercise and demonstrate their linguistic skills while establishing their interest in contemporary political affairs. Drama provided a way to express such interest in public and meaningful ways, since they could perform for the queen and other high ranking officials, but not speak with them directly. At the same time, the fictional remove of drama provided a politically safe way to communicate this concern, since the stories resonated with contemporary politics, but were not direct commentaries.

In its topic, form, and contemporary significance, Lucy Nordberg’s King Arthur recuperates and repurposes this early Renaissance tradition of political drama for our own time.

A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming Under the Southern Bough

Lucy Nordberg — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 09:45:11 +0000

As a specialist in blank verse, I was fortunate to be involved in an unusual academic and performance project organised by the University of Leeds to mark the 400th anniversary of the deaths of both Shakespeare and the Ming dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu. A new stage production was presented by two groups of academics and students preparing and rehearsing on different continents, with Beijing-based students from the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) adapting A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while students from Leeds University reworked Tang’s Nanke-ji (A Dream Under the Southern Bough). The adaptations were performed at both Universities before appearing at the 2016 Leeds Intercultural Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, followed by a tour of China including Beijing, Shanghai, and Tang’s hometown Fuzhou during the Tang Xianzu Memorial Festival. Ruru Li, Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds, suggested I assist Jun Li, director of UIBE’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in aspects of their script. Jun, a passionate advocate of Shakespeare’s style, wanted to remain faithful to the poetic nature of the work even though this aspect of the adaptation might prove challenging to non-native English speakers. Jun’s script – which he wrote with co-adaptor Bingying Wang – clearly took inspiration from parts of the original text that echoed aspects of Chinese culture, especially in a chorus-like assembly of three Spirits representing different attitudes towards love: Sense, Sensibility and Moderation. Jun pointed out that as ‘moderation’ is a quality highly valued in China, this Spirit was portrayed as especially Chinese. Jun especially wanted the Spirits to speak in iambic pentameter, in order to distinguish their voices from the non-magical characters, who would also speak in verse at times of heightened emotion. We had an idea of what should be said: it was a case of converting the dialogue into blank verse. This is how I usually work on iambic pentameter, firstly by creating an overall plan of the meaning and effect and then working on the poetry. Contemporary concerns were included, with social media mentioned to demonstrate potential for communications and miscommunication between the characters. With a modern work in a classic style, referring to aspects of contemporary life makes new metaphors and allusions possible. This is an advantage of poetic dialogue, as comparisons are naturally drawn between one thing and another, drawing in complex ideas and making them human. The language was kept as clear and contemporary as possible, so as not to over-complicate with very specific Elizabethan terms and references. This project involved many people through study, practical theatrical work, and cross-collaboration. My own small part in this production revitalised my writing practice with new ideas. As Ruru commented when working on the project, “It is a genuine intercultural practice, both thought-provoking and a great pleasure for everyone involved.” It is also a testament to the enduring qualities of the classic form that these playwrights, four hundred years after their deaths, can still have their work produced and adapted in such a modern way.

From Home

Lucy Nordberg — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:23:10 +0000

From Home is a project to capture the experience of home as it is lived and articulated by a broad range of individuals, presenting those experiences with digital technologies that are both reflective and illuminating.

Wherever it is shown, From Home invites and encourages those members of the public who experience the piece to contribute their own thoughts on home, so that the artwork becomes ever more layered, reflecting the rich complexity embedded in that single word home.

At an event for Brighton Digital Festival I presented with Marc Green, co-producer of Time and Tide, we met Tom Ottway from Language Umbrella media. Tom had researched ‘home’ and stories of home at the University of Sussex for many years, and we all felt that the subject was ideal for a piece of immersive theatre or interactive media.

Supported by the team at FuseBox innovation lab in Brighton, we later held our first event for Brighton Digital Festival, with Chris Chowen and Chandler Dagg creating the VR experience that hosts our content.

The story so far

The project began before lockdown, with a wealth of pre-pandemic material already gathered. From March 2020, we documented the various stages of lockdown at home as a piece of living archive, or social history in action. We asked the public to send in short videos of their experiences of home at this time, with great and varied responses coming in from all around the world.

Contributions ranged from people talking of self-isolating in a garden shed, to writing messages in pebbles on a beach and singing songs of hope in Montreal, Canada; of domestic violence in lockdown from India, to giving birth in lockdown in Margate; from a displaced Romanian performance poet’s expression of her body as home, to a man’s moving story of mourning his father.

I also wrote and co-produced a short film, Homecoming, completed during lockdown with the actor Samuel West. Read more about Homecoming here.

Our first event at the 2021 Brighton Digital Festival, supported by Wired Sussex’s innovation lab FuseBox, placed our extensive audio and visual content at the heart of an immersive VR experience. The event was programmed by Lighthouse, and supported through Digital Democracies, a programme led by Threshold Studios.
In the virtual environment, viewable with a 360 headset, visitors made their own way through a series of rooms – scanned from real-life locations, including participant’s homes, together with performance spaces such as the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts – and interacted at their own pace to experience the embedded sound art and videos.

After the experience, they were invited to be interviewed about their personal ideas of home while filmed in front of a green screen, creating content that will itself be used in the virtual world, as the project develops.

A launch party saw the live element of From Home brought to the fore, with some of the performers who had submitted material to the project entertaining the audience.

From Home event

From Home Logo Square

From Home: pic credit Erin James

From-Home

From Home: pic credit Erin James

Image for Wired Sussex

Lucy at From Home event Pic Credit: Erin James

Time and Tide

Lucy Nordberg — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:58:34 +0000

I wrote and co-produced this trilogy of shorts films, starring Greta Scacchi, John Locke and Samuel West, in order to explore how we approach the past, reconcile it with the present, and face the future, as we live our individual lives while subject to the wider influence of society and history.

Time and Tide has been shown at many festivals around the world, and won awards including Best UK Short Film at the London Independent Film Festival and Best International Short Film at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema.

The film is part of my ongoing practice to use poetry in modern work, and its success has led me to consider the potential for the wider use of dramatic verse in film.

Time and Tide

You can watch Time and Tide below

Time and Tide : Interview with Lucy

I was interviewed about Time and Tide for Indie FilmOnTV!, a series presented by Deborah Espect and broadcast on LatestTV. Catch the full interview below.

Indie FilmOnTV - Time & Tide from Latest TV on Vimeo.

You can read more about the films that make up the trilogy in the press pack that was sent out to festivals here, or at the links below.

The Arena

The Last Lighthouse Keeper

Homecoming

The Arena

Lucy Nordberg — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 13:32:29 +0000

The Arena is part of the multi-award winning short film trilogy Time and Tide.

Greta Scacchi stars in this story of a gladiator fighting for his life, while his mother watches on, unable to protect him. While trying to distract herself from the danger he is in, she is reminded of happier times when he was a child under her care, free from responsibility. Greta’s performance creates an air of intimacy, drawing attention to the emotion that she shows in the moment, while she narrates the story in such a way that brings the past to life.

Dreamlike sequences of a child, played by Dan Newman, intercut the central performance, with the connection between the boy on the beach and the gladiator in the narrative coming together at the very end.

Film Stills

The Arena film still

Behind the Scenes

Filmed during Covid19 restrictions, the closed and limited nature of the set with a minimal crew helped to produce the concentrated atmosphere necessary to create the film. Set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, West Wittering beach is an idyllic sandy beach located at the entrance to Chichester Harbour, chosen for this film as a place that could easily bring to mind childhood memories of the seaside – in fact I spent time there as a child, a memory of which inspired the piece. Cast and crew enjoyed their time on the beach working outside as a break from lockdown.

As Greta has played parts in French and Italian films – aside from learning German for one role – we filmed an additional version of the film in Italian, separate to the English version. The poem was translated, and had a different feel in performance.

The Arena cast and crew

Behind the scenes – setting up

Greta on set

Greta and crew setting up

Early morning set up

Filming on set

Greta preparing on set

Greta close up

Cast and Crew

Mother: Greta Scacchi
Son: Dan Newman

Director/Cinematographer: Justin Spray
Writer: Lucy Nordberg
Original Music: Sophie Cotton
Casting Director: Irene Cotton, CDG
Camera: Justin Spray & Marc Green
Editor: Jonny Simpson-Lee
Sound Design/Dialogue Editor: Pete Gill
Producers: Lucy Nordberg & Marc Green
Assistant Producer: Justin Hillier
Translator for Italian version: Gloria Accalai
With special thanks to: Lynne Senior and the West Wittering Estate

The Last Lighthouse Keeper

Lucy Nordberg — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 13:59:54 +0000

The Last Lighthouse Keeper is part of the multi-award winning short film trilogy Time and Tide.

This part of the trilogy film tells duties the story of one of the most legendary maritime figures, following the occupation of the keeper from the invention of the lighthouse – when a guardian was needed to tend the light – to eventual redundancy, with all the adventures that came between.

Character actor John Locke embodies the dual nature of the role to show a man in a working profession, carrying out everyday tasks, while also producing a performance that brings an epic quality to express the folklore and legends of the sea. After going about his work, John’s performance leads us further and further into the myth, before he settles back once again to become an ordinary man.

The Last Lighthouse Keeper film still

Behind the Scenes

The atmospheric location is a former lightship – a lighthouse at sea. Built in 1963, Lightvessel 21 (LV21) is now based on the River Thames at Gravesend and has become one of Kent’s prime platforms for cultural activities, as an arts space and performance facility. The owners, Päivi Seppälä and Gary Weston, were both on hand to welcome the film team and help them make the most of the location.

Cast and crew were on board for the duration of the filming – in fact, for a few hours at high tide, the ship was afloat so it was impossible to go ashore. The film crew enjoyed the chance to become a ship’s crew, below decks on a stormy day that helped create the atmosphere of a beleaguered lighthouse, while still anchored on the banks of the Thames.

In addition to the standard film, a version was also captured with a 360 camera, which allows the audience to feel as if they are sitting inside the lightship while watching John’s performance.

Lighthouse keeper – so it begins

The Last Lighthouse Keeper – on set

The Last Lighthouse Keeper – behind the scenes

The Last Lighthouse Keeper – reviewing the footage

The Last Lighthouse Keeper – John Locke

The Last Lighthouse Keeper – behind the scenes

The Last Lighthouse Keeper – the set

Cast and Crew

Lighthouse Keeper: John Locke

Writer: Lucy Nordberg
Director: Marc Green
Casting Director: Peter Mantle
Composite/Colourist: Jonny Simpson-Lee
Sound/Design/Mix: Pete Gill
DIT/Production Assistant: Adam Stox
Assistant Producer: Justin Hillier
With special thanks to: The crew of the LV21 Lightship, Gary Weston & Päivi Seppälä

Homecoming

Lucy Nordberg — Thu, 30 May 2024 13:00:27 +0000

Homecoming is part of the multi-award winning short trilogy Time and Tide.

Samuel West plays an actor returning to the theatre, as he tells the story of Odysseus, who found that even after the Trojan war and an epic journey home across the sea, his trials were far from over. After the theatre lay dormant during coronavirus restrictions, the actor walks through the working areas backstage, using Odysseus’ journey to express the frustration at the deserted theatre and the struggles faced in life as we try to start again after a crisis. As he remembers the audience that once filled the empty seats, an epic reveal across the auditorium coincides with a change in perspective that gives him hope for the future.

The film is also about the central character’s homecoming to his world as an actor and the theatres that lay dormant for so long during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. It shows the change in perception that has occurred through this time of crisis, and the process by which we find the motivation to start again.

Samuel West was ideal casting as besides his extensive experience in stage and screen, he set up the poetry-reading initiative – Pandemic Poems – just ahead of the official UK Coronavirus lock-down in 2020. The initiative sought to give a time for reflection and hope in times of uncertainty.

Samuel stated: “The Playhouse, the palace of fantasy, is paradoxically often the best place for us to hear the truth nowadays. During the pandemic, every empty theatre seems to say to me ‘Here’s what you could have won.’ At a time when my addiction to the live had no fix through plays, gigs or football, it was so good to get onto the stage of the Theatre Royal, Brighton (which I know and love well) for a very personal Homecoming. I’m very grateful to Moving Pictures Theatre for the chance.”

Homecoming is also part of the From Home project first presented at Brighton Digital Festival, which explores the wider meaning of home. Material for other aspects of the project include videos collected from all over the world – from professional short films through to thoughts spoken to camera phone – and presented in an immersive VR environment. Read more about From Home here.

Homecoming film still

Behind the Scenes

One of the oldest theatres in the country, The Theatre Royal in Brighton opened in 1806. Homecoming offered the obvious opportunity to use not only the stage, but also the areas behind the scenes and under the stage that are less often seen by the audience.

Filmed entirely during lockdown, the production faced challenges but also offered an opportunity to reopen the stage for performance. The theatre’s general manager, John Baldock, and technical manager, Tom Hitchins, were present during filming. Two of the film’s production assistants, Isabella McCarthy Sommerville and Rosana Arbini, both work at the Theatre Royal – as well as being actors – and were pleased to have this opportunity to return to the stage during its closure, albeit in a different role. The theatre team’s knowledge of the venue helped the film crew get the most out of this atmospheric space.

Homecoming film still

Samuel West on stage

Homecoming film still

Samuel West on stage

Filming Samuel West

Aerial view of Samuel West on stage

Assistant producer Justin Hillier on COVID watch

Filming Samuel West

Jonathan Stow, Mike O’Connor & Ari Rissotti prepping

Preparing the props

Preparing the scene

Setting up the walkway scene

Setting up the basement shot

The equipment arrives on set

Theatre Royal general manager John Baldock on set

Homecoming – behind the scenes

Homecoming – filming the beach scene

Homecoming – setting up

Jonathan Stow directing

Samuel West and Jonathan Stow rehearsing a scene

Samuel West backstage

Samuel West on stage

Cast and Crew

The Actor: Samuel West

Director/Editor: Jonathan Stow
Writer: Lucy Nordberg
Original Music: Sophie Cotton
Producers: Marc Green and Lucy Nordberg
Casting Director: Irene Cotton, CDG
1st Assistant Director: Ari Rissotti
Director of Photography: Mike O’Connor
Colourist: Mark Mulcaster
1st Assistant Camera: Ondrej Rybar
2nd Assistant Camera: Oliver Barwell
Steadicam Operator: James Burgess
Sound Recordist/Dialogue Editor: Pete Gill
Sound Designer: Sophie Cotton
Hair & Make Up: Sian Duke
Sound/Design/Mix: Pete Gill
Hair & Make Up: Sian Duke
Assistant Producer: Justin Hillier
Production Assistants: Isabella McCarthy Sommerville, Rosanna Bini, Luke Cowie
Props: Hobgoblin Music
Special thanks to: John Baldock, Tom Hitchins and The Ambassador Group of the Theatre Royal, Brighton

The Mirror

Lucy Nordberg — Sat, 25 May 2024 13:01:27 +0000

Completed as two versions – both in traditional film and 360 VR – this short film set in Brighton’s historic Preston Manor is a literal reflection on the passing of time. The lady of a country house, over a hundred years ago, looks into her table mirror and prepares for the day, talking about the practical, everyday help the mirror gives to show how we look to others in the world. The film is also a warning that the image in the mirror can also just reflect and reinforce the distorted image we have of ourselves – and how the reflection, like us, will one day disappear.

I wrote and co-produced the film as part of my ongoing practise to use dramatic verse in modern work.

The traditional film version was shown as part of Latest Visions presents: International Women’s Day, broadcast on TV stations Northern Visions (Belfast), Latest TV (Brighton), Sheffield Live, and KMTV (Kent), Freeview 7 and Virgin Channel 159.

The 360 version screened as part of a Brighton Digital Festival event I held with Marc Green, co-producer, where we investigated the use of the 360 filming.

Why two versions?

Producing a 360 version alongside a traditional version was an ideal way to test the possibilities of 360 film. The two versions stand alone, but show different techniques to tell the same story. This test helped inform plans for longer form work – you can read more about the further development of these ideas for When All the Crowds Have Gone.

New film-making techniques are often thought of as futuristic, but classic stories also offer interesting possibilities. The 360 version of the Mirror immerses the viewer in a historic location – a period drama can be powerful when the viewer can fully enter that historic world.

The Mirror

You can watch The Mirror below

The Mirror – 360

The 360 version of The Mirror is also available. This is best experienced in a VR headset, but if you are watching on your phone, you can move it around to see all areas of the scene. On a computer, use your mouse to click and drag the image to change your view.

Stills

The Mirror film still

360 Stills

The Mirror 360 ‘ghost’ film still

The Mirror 360 film still

Cast and Crew

Lady of the House: Isabella McCarthy Sommerville
Lady’s Maid: Rosanna Bini

Director: Marc Green
Writer: Lucy Nordberg
Cinematographer: Justin Spray
Editor: Alexx Paul Sherman
Sound/Design/Mix: Pete Gill
Production Design: Paula Wrightson
Cinematography & Camera for 360 version: Michael Danks
Editor for 360 version: Johnny Simpson-Lee
With special thanks to: all at Preston Manor