Love, poetic, movement
I am soft water, shallow, still
I am a narrow faucet
If you still tried to turn me on
Baby, I’d endorse it
If walls could talk…a lover’s lament.
A house speaks its truth in this metaphorical film poem by UK writer performer Hester Ullyart, vividly brought to life by composer Anita Clark and director of photography Sabin Holloway.
Love, loss and reclamation. Drop by drop, brick by brick, step by step.
Recorded at The British Hotel and various homes in Lyttelton New Zealand where Hester is currently in lockdown.
With special thanks to The British Hotel Lyttelton NZ, Rebecca Lovell-Smith, Angus and Ruth, Meredith Morton, Darryl Cribb, Oliver Buckley, Bonnie Judkins, James Ellis, Ben Edwards and Louise Buckingham.
Created, written and performed by Hester Ullyart
Music Composed and produced by Anita Clark
Filmed by Sabin Holloway
WINNER ‘Best Poetry Short’ Dreamers of Dreams Festival 2020
Pricing
Tickets are available as ‘Pay What You Can’ – the suggested price for this event is £5 – but there are a range of ticket prices so you can choose what you can afford from the options, including £0 as we want as many people as possible to access our Homemakers commissions.
We’ve also included a higher option for anyone who wants to take the opportunity to make a larger donation to our artists and organisations. How much you choose to pay is completely up to you, and every audience member will receive exactly the same content and experience.
All the money raised from ticket sales for this event will be split evenly with 50% going directly to the artist and 50% to RADA Festival’s response fund to allow them to continue to support future artists and commissions.
Homemakers Project Overview
Homemakers is a series of new commissions, where we invite our favourite artists and artistic partners to combine to create work at home, for an audience who are also at home.
We’re not pretending that all art can be experienced online just as satisfactorily as in person; but we want to demonstrate the innovation of artists who work all kinds of forms, by inviting them to respond to this very specific context. We want to bring contemporary new performance to audiences all over the world, in all its form-flexing, mind-expanding, surprising subversive brilliance.
About Hester Ullyart
Hester Ullyart is an actress, poet, director and award winning playwright. Born in Hull, East Yorkshire, she graduated RADA in 2011.
She creates full‐length theatre shows, cabaret and spoken word works with shapeshifting central performances; working in close collaboration with cross-platform artists to bring her multi-disciplinary concepts to life. Whether gritty, magical, musical, vulnerable or emotionally explosive, rich worlds are often tackled with the wit of her disarming Northern gaze. Deeply inspired by cinema and in love with the tangibility of theatre up close, she oversees all aspects of her independent work.
She is currently based between the UK and New Zealand, collaborating with NZ artists such as the avant-garde Free Theatre, country-noir musician Delaney Davidson and Mike Friend of the Lyttelton Arts Factory (on Our Town among others) where she collaborated with composer Anita Clark for the first time. Clark and Ullyart’s fertile working connection is gratefully nurtured further with the HomeMCR/RADA Fest commission of I am all the rooms of the house.
Hester’s debut play The Ballad of Paragon Station (winner ‘Stellar Outstanding Content’ NZ Fringe, Hull Truck, Edinburgh Festival, Heads Up Festival) first previewed at RADA Fest in 2017.
Hester and Hull Truck Theatre’s ‘slick and stylish’ contemporary thriller Paragon Dreams premiered Hull Truck in May 2019 to critical acclaim and was performed in New Zealand in July 2020. A UK/NZ tour is due to be re-scheduled pending Covid-19 circumstances.
@hestermaryida on Instagram
www.hesterullyart.com
About Anita Clark
Anita Clark is a violinist and composer currently living in Lyttelton, New Zealand. She performs under the moniker ‘MOTTE’ as an alt/experimental pop, modern classical and ambient/noise artist. She released her first solo album ‘Songs For Movies’ in 2015, followed by ‘Strange Dreams’ in 2017, with a third to be released early next year.
Alongside her performance career, she has collaborated with artists in the film/ dance and theatre worlds, with highlights including: Composer/performer for ‘The Sky Is Not So Different From Us’ (2019 Royal NZ Ballet’s Choreographic Series), composer/performer for ‘Our Town’ theatre show directed by Hester Ullyart/Mike Friend at Lyttelton Arts Factory, and composer for short films ‘Bloom’ (NZ), ‘Shadows’ (Australia), ‘St Bathan’s Repetitions’ (Montreal).
Sabin Holloway
Sabin Holloway is a filmmaker and photographer based in Lyttelton, NZ.
About RADA Festival
The RADA Festival is a vibrant annual event that nurtures artists’ development and provides a platform for emerging and established work. Usually hosted at RADA over 10 days in June and July, the Festival supports and celebrates the variety of work RADA’s graduates create as they form new collaborations, explore different creative practices and develop innovative ideas in theatre-making. We present work at the Festival that embraces multiple perspectives, encourages creative risk, is current, engaging and thoughtful.
@RADA_London on Twitter
“Now more than ever, is the time to come together and recognise each other’s strengths by exploring creative opportunities. In the absence of a full RADA Festival this year, we are absolutely thrilled to be collaborating as a partner for the Homemakers programme. It’s been really inspiring to watch these lockdown projects develop and be able to continue to support emerging work from across the globe.” Jo Wiltshire, RADA Festival Producer.
