Jason Lee - Our Own Soliloquy

I was trying to keep my mind occupied and sane in lockdown by signing up for anything that would allow me to express myself creatively and artistically. What I discovered was the lovely community of the GAP Basement Theatre Ensemble.

I’ve felt right at home from the beginning, everyone is supportive and open, so the process of acclimatising has been easy. In the devising process we can openly put in our ideas - fully or “half baked” - and everyone can chip or give their two cents on it constructively.

We’ve been exploring how Shakespeare’s soliloquies and speeches resonate for us in these times of Covid-19. Some of the pieces we’ve looked at include was the “all the world's a stage” speech from As You Like It, and two pieces from Richard III, which seemed particularly relevant as we talked about the early stages of lockdown when everyone was fighting over every spec of food and toilet paper.

It’s weird how the text from a Tudor play about a mad man’s pursuit for the throne can resonate with people in the 21st currently in the midst of a worldwide pandemic - but here we are! And that’s what I think is great about Shakespeare.

We also talked about how our mental health has been affected because of the closure of youth development and art programmes as well as the shift to online learning. It’s truly heart-breaking hearing people with such potential to do amazing things currently facing roadblocks as their daily lives, structure and purpose has been taken away from them.

Things took a deep turn for me as I shared my experiences of my family abroad and how I felt hurt and helpless not being able to help them and everyone could relate to it. In a way it was very cathartic.

One of the most stand out moments for me, emerging and cutting through my despair, was when one member talked about how her early days of lockdown were gloomy but gradually she realised it was a blessing in disguise. For the first time in a very long time, she got to do hobbies she wouldn’t normally have time to do. She had the chance to discover who she was again. I think a lot of us are facing that right now: we were so busy going about our day to day lives we never got to sit down, look in the mirror and ask “who are we?” and have our own soliloquy.

As the great Mohammed Ali once said: “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

I’m not the same person I was when we started lockdown, but change is good.

We talk and talk but we never say. In a world of instant messaging (as well as gratification) when was the last time we said our thoughts or feelings out loud? There’s a difference in what we write and what we say. When you say, you connect, you feel. When you feel, you can empathise with others.

Using Shakespeare’s words has allowed us to express our experiences and emotions with a sense of anonymity, which is great when breaking the ice in front of a bunch of new people. Shakespeare’s text has been interpreted and has resonated differently for different people and with what is going on in their lives. I’ve seen it happen in our ensemble sessions. That’s what makes it timeless.