Last Call
Last Call is a series of site-responsive short films based on the poetry of Jean Atkin, inspired by stories centred around the old village stalwart — the red British telephone box.
Available now on the Feral YouTube channel
BACKGROUND
Continuing the now-established Feral model of researching a local site with universal relevance and responding to it through poetry, Last Call focuses on what is perhaps not an obvious performance arena, the red telephone box.
Vowchurch phonebox. Image: Gabriella Karney
The project was born out of a chance meeting between Feral artistic director Estelle van Warmelo and poet Jean Atkin back in 2019. Jean spoke of her enthusiasm for the icon of a bygone era, the red telephone box, and explained how she had been photographing them for years with an eye to expanding the creative playing field.
Backed by the support of The Courtyard Hereford, Estelle and Jean set about researching old-style red boxes that remained standing in the local area. Following a period of location scouting, Jean began crafting poetry that would serve as inspiration for digital development.
Estelle noted that “as Jean’s fine words became poems, they dropped, village by village, into my email and the stories and characters tumbled onto the page. Our digital contact in enforced separation reflected moments of interaction in history, held by tiny wires across the miles. We were struck by how much meaning they carried, these icons of a bygone age, how much significance.”
While many of the boxes now exist in varying states of disrepair, a good number have been repurposed and live on as community libraries or defibrillator storage locations.
While detailing the project on social media, Estelle and Jean were astonished by the outpouring of public affection for the phone boxes and the prevalence of stories people had about them. Jean reflected that Last Call was able to capture a “sense of voices on the line, indeed of that very last voice caught in the wires, even as the telephone itself is stripped from the box.”
PRODUCTION
Jean wrote individual poems for nine phone box locations. Estelle subsequently created narrative vignettes for each and developed the pieces into digital theatre scripts with the help of film director Lisle Turner.
An eventful production period commenced during the midst of a pandemic and changeable weather patterns. Despite the challenges, Carl Davies and Kie Cummings managed to create visual magic and the work is scored by Ivor Novello nominated composer Sophie Cooper, who transformed on-site field recordings into beguiling sound design.
The result is a diverse set of nine films that are deeply site-responsive and come from a place of authenticity. They each run under two minutes and, following a socially-distance premiere, will be available on YouTube and social media from Friday 16th July 2021.
CREDITS
Artistic Direction — Estelle van Warmelo
Cinematography — Kie Cummings
Production Design — Carl Davies
Directed for Camera — Lisle Turner
Music and Sound Design — Sophie Cooper
Inspired by original poems by Jean Atkin
Production Management — Mina Nakamura
Production Photography — Gabriella Karney
Admin — Chloe Bradman
Finance — Jordan Todd
Marketing — Tom Eperjesi
CAST
Best Man — Ellis Kerkhoven
Tony — Chris Morgan
Margaret — Kara Lyons
Rosie — Claire Coaché
The Husband — Ellis Kerkhoven
Taxi Man — Robert Traynor
Mary — Clêr Stephens
Woman — Laura Bayston
Lily — Lily Jones
Toby — Toby Jones
Young Man — Fletcher Garrard
The Box — Robert Traynor
Woman — Kate Pothecary
Belle The Dog — Dash
Additional Dialogue — Jake Blanchard, Sophie Cooper