Hatch: Horizons

Holly and Lydia are a self-producing/-writing/-directing company. They met whilst training on the BA Acting course at the Guildford School of Acting. Throughout their training, they both shared an interest in writing and creating theatre. In 2019, Lydia wrote and directed a play at The Actors Centre based on her mother’s turbulent upbringing and her relationship to her siblings. Then in 2020, Holly and Lydia decided to start a collaboration. They discussed ideas and drafted scenes for an earlier piece whilst social distancing on Hampstead Heath. This led to future writing endeavours together in both short film and theatre. Recently, Holly’s tv comedy pilot ranked in the top 20% of All3Media’s New Script Award 2022. Holly and Lydia are research driven and have delved into the real world of their fictional play Collateral. They attended hearings at the Old Bailey to gain an insight into a life removed from their own. They have also developed a relationship with the charity Children Heard and Seen, the only UK charity that works with the families of criminals. These families are the collateral victims of high profile crimes, and would otherwise go unsupported, emotionally and financially, and often shamed due to their familial connection to the perpetrator. The course of the play has, in turn, been shaped by the extensive conversations they have had with Leanne from the charity. Outside of theatre, Lydia is an avid footballer for the LGBTQ+ team Wonderkid FC, and Holly loves live music and birthday cake (no fondant, only buttercream).

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COLLATERAL is a social and familial drama along the lines of One for Sorrow and Anatomy of a Suicide. Claire’s husband and father of her two teenage daughters is charged with the brutal murder of a woman, although the nature of the crime is not detailed in the play. The national outcry and subsequent media attention force them to flee their home town, change names, and start life again - a new horizon. At this point in the play, we see Claire struggling to get any financial support for her and her family, in a difficult conversation with a work coach at her initial Universal Credit meeting. In the second scene, Claire meets Jermain, a community figure, as she is found staring out to sea. She is initially distrusting of Jermain, however he begins to emboy Claire’s hope, as his charitable endeavours become a welcome distraction for Claire, and they slowly form a friendship. Collateral is about womanhood, survival and preservation of the family and the self. ‘In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer” - Albert Camus