OLDHAM Coliseum is teaming up with Canadian theatre company Impel Theatre in cross-Atlantic collaboration, An Acorn.

Starring Mina Anwar, (The Thin Blue Line, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), Darren Jeffries (Hollyoaks) and Canadian actors Blythe Haynes and Ryan G Hinds, An Acorn is a live digital performance over Zoom with an interactive twist.

Originally commissioned in 2017 by American Blues Theatre, the play opens the morning after an unspecified disaster, reminiscent of the struggles faced by people living lockdown during the pandemic.

Mina and Darren will receive a script with specific instructions just an hour before the performance, whilst Canadian actors Blythe Haynes (An Atlas, A Necktie & Other Concerns) and Ryan G Hinds (#KanderAndEbb, We Will Rock You) will be rehearsed. The two groups of actors have never met before, adding to the sense of chaos and spontaneity.

The play has been written by award winning playwright Caridad Svich, who is also a screenwriter, translator, editor, lyricist, essayist, educator and freelance arts journalist. Her works in English and Spanish have been produced internationally.

An Acorn is directed and co-produced by Kendra Jones who trained at RADA, London, and The University of Winnipeg, Canada. As well as an extensive list of directing credits Jones has also written about contemporary performance from an academic perspective. Her written work appears on her blog and has also been published by CBC Manitoba, Common Ground Publishing, Brunel University, and the Humanities Education Research Association.

The performance takes place live on Zoom on Thursday May 6, followed by a recorded run from May 7 – May 17.

Upon booking audiences will receive a link to download the show’s accompanying soundscape and instructions on how to curate their space and interact with the piece with pandemic portraits on Instagram at @forest_acorn.