Following the decision to cancel their Autumn season in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sheffield University Theatre Company (SUTCo) moved online to present Embrace – a week long festival of theatre, poetry, workshops and more available for free through their Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Each day of the festival had a different theme, ranging from ‘National Coming Out Day’ to ‘World Mental Health’ and ‘National No Bra Day’, which provided a vital sense of structure and focus, unifying an extremely diverse amount of content. Each day also included an informational workshop expanding on the theme and providing valuable insight into topics such as body image in casting and decolonising theatre. The organisers achieved a satisfying balance between informative and creative pieces, and I appreciated how the content was staggered throughout the week so there was ample time to take everything in.
SUTCo’s commitment to representing and respecting a broad range of student experiences was evident throughout, from a heartbreaking anonymously submitted poem about living with OCD to Luca Hirst’s reflections on coming out as transgender, and Maddy Whitby’s ‘Judaism and Matzo’. Issues such as body image, mental health, sexuality and race were handled with sensitivity and nuance, with appropriate content warnings provided.
It’s hard to criticise an event that was organised under such difficult circumstances, however, I would have appreciated if there were more opportunities for audience interaction. Although nothing can compare to the experience of attending live theatre, perhaps incorporating live streams of events or adding a Q&A session to answer audience questions about the topics discussed would have helped to create more of a link with the audience.
Overall, Embrace was a bold, inclusive and well organised way to share student creativity in the craziest of circumstances. It was a breath of fresh air to see such creative and informative content on my Facebook feed every day, and I can only hope that this standard of online entertainment can be kept up by societies throughout the year.
4 stars.
Image Credit: Stills from SUTCo’s Youtube videos, where all the recorded events were shared. Source: Theatre Company Youtube channel
