I Think We Are Alone to stream online as part of digital tour

Performances of I Think We Are Alone will stream online later this month as part of a digital tour.

Frantic Assembly is teaming up to with TEA films to release a specially commissioned version of I Think We Are Alone by Sally Abbott (The Coroner; Vera) for the screen.

The production’s original tour was cut short in March 2020 by the global pandemic.

Directed by Frantic Assembly Artistic Director Scott Graham, the screen production will be streamed on stream.theatre for one week only from Monday, 29 November to Saturday, 4 December as part of a ‘digital tour’.

Scott Graham said: “When the pandemic put a halt to our tour of I Think We Are Alone, it felt cruel and unnatural. We were left with a feeling of disconnect and unfinished business. I Think
We Are Alone was originally created through a fascination with our desires and difficulties to connect, how we alienate the ones we long to hold close.

“That has only been pulled into greater focus through numerous lockdowns. I Think We Are Alone is an opportunity to take the work in a new form to the venues and regions that missed out when the tour was halted and potentially to new audiences across the UK.

“We are building towards presenting work in theatres in the near future, but this project reflects our ache and desire to connect with our audience at a time when we need each other more than ever.”

I Think We Are Alone was commissioned as Frantic Assembly’s 25th Anniversary production and premiered at Theatre Royal Plymouth in February 2020. It was on a 15-week tour and playing to full houses at Theatre Royal Stratford East when the tour was cut short due to the global pandemic.

The delicate and uplifting play is about our fragility, resilience and need for love and forgiveness. Two sisters are estranged and bicker over text. Their brittle and aggressive language is pushing them further apart when what they really want is to meet, clear the air and talk about the events that happened when they were young girls and haunt them still. Josie is not allowing grief to get in the way. All her focus is on what is best for her son, Manny. She desperately wants him to fly but can she let him go? There is a person shaped hole in Graham’s heart and it is driving him to some dark places. When a stranger returns an act of kindness both find themselves opening up and connecting in a way that might just bring a bit of light in.

Now embarking on a ‘digital tour’, Frantic Assembly are working with venues whose dates had to be cancelled last year to reach audiences who missed out on seeing the show. These venues are Theatre Royal Plymouth, MAST Studios Southampton, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Oxford Playhouse, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Curve Leicester and The Lowry.

The production was remounted and filmed at MAST Southampton and has design by Morgan Large with lighting by Paul Keogan, sound by Ella Wahlstrom and casting by Will Burton.

Original cast members Charlotte Bate (On The Other Hand We’re Happy, Daughterhood) and Andrew Turner (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Coronation Street) are joined by new casting Diveen Henry (Hamlet; Barbican, Manhunt: Night Stalker), Khai Shaw (Little Baby Jesus, Decades), Kirsty Stuart (Gut, Painted People) and Elexi Walker (The Witches, Europa) for the digital version.

I Think We Are Alone streams via stream.theatre from Monday, 29 November to Saturday, 4 December.