Granny Jackson's Dead by Big Telly Theatre Company Neil Harrison Photography
Press release issued: 8 October 2024
Members of the public are invited to be part of a live Irish-style wake this week [Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 October] to explore how new digital technologies can influence the way we memorialise and remember loved ones.
Big Telly’s critically acclaimed performance Granny Jackson’s Dead will be showing in Weston-super-Mare as part of Good Grief Weston, a festival of love and loss.
The drama surrounds Granny Jackson’s family who are at somewhat different ends of the digital spectrum and do not agree on how best to grieve and memorialise their beloved matriarch.
In an immersive experience, audiences will be able to join the drama, meet the family, help make the tea and be offered a VR headset which brings Granny Jackson to life. as tradition collides with 21st Century technology Should they let her spirit go free, or preserve her digital footprint – and might Granny’s voice have a say in the matter beyond the grave?
Tickets to the Weston shows from Thursday 10 – Sunday 13 October, are pay-what-you-decide from £5. Book at Super Culture Events.
Good Grief Weston 2024 is a programme of activities and events across North Somerset that aim to open up conversations around death and bereavement, with honesty, compassion, joy and sometimes with humour.
The festival is produced by Super Culture in collaboration with the University of Bristol and the Weston-super-Mare Community Network, as part of the national Coastal Community and Creative Health project.
The unfolding drama – featuring a local resident starring as Granny herself – will take place at a house in Graham Road in Weston. Be part of a live Irish-style wake in a living room in audiences will meet the family, help make the tea and be offered a VR headset which brings Granny Jackson back from the grave, dancing merrily into the centre of her own Wake.
Expect home truths, twists, turns, and of course, tea in a delightfully dysfunctional family function, that includes local artists performing with the Big Telly Theatre company for the Weston shows.
Fiona Matthews, Creative Director at Super Culture said: “Twenty-first Century technology brings a whole new dimension to the notion of ‘voices from beyond the grave’. It’s fair to say that Granny Jackson’s family are at somewhat different ends of the digital spectrum and do not agree on how best to grieve and memorialise their beloved matriarch. Come along to Granny’s wake, and see whether it’s ashes, pixels or something else entirely that holds meaning for you.”
For further information and full event line-up, visit Good Grief Weston and follow @SuperCultureWsM for latest updates.
Further information
Super Culture is the new name and brand identity announced in August 2023 that unites long-established, award-winning North Somerset arts organisation, Theatre Orchard, and its Weston-facing programme, Culture Weston. Super Culture continues, both online and in person, to help weave the cultural fabric of Weston-super-Mare and North Somerset, focusing on inclusion and working collaboratively with a wide range of partners. Everything is accessibly priced or free of charge, bringing the extraordinary into the every day.
The Weston-super-Mare Community Network
This network, led by Lucy Selman, Professor of Palliative and End of Life Care from the Centre for Academic Primary Care and Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group at the University of Bristol, was established in 2022 and aims to tackle inequities and reduce social isolation in end-of-life care and bereavement. The network brings together, as equal participants, people with lived experience, health and social care providers, and people providing community assets, including arts and culture initiatives, academics, and public health experts.
To find out more about the Weston-super-Mare community network and how to get involved, see wsmcommunity.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/
The Coastal Community & Creative Health Project
Coastal Community & Creative Health is a three-year project focussed on three coastal areas of England which have significant health inequalities but are rich in community assets: Blackpool, Weston-super-Mare and Hastings. The project brings together the NHS, local authorities, researchers, voluntary and community organisations and residents together to tackle health inequalities. It focuses on three mental health priority areas in coastal towns: young people’s mental health, substance misuse, and life-limiting illness and bereavement. The project is led by Professor Lucy Selman and Dr Barbara Mezes, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool.
The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council via the mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities programme, which aims to improve health through access to culture, nature and community. The projects in the programme seek to tackle entrenched and long-standing health inequalities in some of Britain’s poorest communities.
For more information, see: www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2024/february-/coastal-communities.html
