This is just a small selection of the wonderful theatre that is available to access from the comfort of your own home. If you are able to do so please do support the theatre industry in this time so that they are able to continue providing content like this for us.
Free
Mint Theatre – 6 free streamed productions: Jan 4 – June 13
Tu Bishvat. Often named as the Rosh Hashanah (Jewish word for New Year) of trees. Of life.
As somebody that is part of the Jewish community I have always shown respect and love towards this holiday. It is a moment in the Jewish calendar where we look towards the future of our planet Earth. It also allows us to develop a connection with the natural world. The Torah says “when you enter the land (of Israel) and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten” (Leviticus 19:23). This law therefore made the Rabbis question, in ancient times, when to mark the birthday of a tree. They then established the fifteenth of the month of Shevat as a general birthday for all trees.
As somebody who invests a lot of my time into the digital world and does not necessarily involve myself into the natural world, I find this holiday a day which allows me to develop some form of connection with nature. Even though I often explore the natural world creatively, through drawing, photography, watching documentaries and reading, I’ve never really found the time to connect with nature. To be a part of it. To breath it. After thinking about this, I personally find it disgusting how much time I spend in-front of my screen and not in the ‘real’ world; however, this is the reality now. The reality of our world. This is why I’ve decided this holiday – Tu Bishvat – should be considered a major holiday. It acts as a bridge, guiding me from technology to the ‘real’ world of nature!
I awoke at 7AM on Tu Bishvat. After attending an online university seminar, I decided to go to Kosher Kingdom, which is a Jewish store near where I live to get supplies. I walked down Golders Green Road, excited, yet for some reason nervous at the same time, and later came to a halt on Russell Parade where the store is. I stopped at the lights. My glasses reflected a row of Hasidic men that were confidently carrying baskets of fresh fruit. These fruits signifying ideas such as life, beginnings and their respect for the Earth. I later walked towards Kosher Kingdom and went inside. I frantically ran around the store in a hurry; I was concerned whether it was closing early due to Tu Bishvat. My fingers wrapped around a biscuit, protecting me from the many hands that were trying to move towards the fresh fruit aisle. I had tried to get everything my Rabbi had asked me: an apple, a nut, a piece of dried fruit, a cup of white and a cup of red. These pieces of food allows us to celebrate this holiday and also make us connect with it more.
Starting University, you have big plans and dreams of what’s to come. You’re going to meet your best friends in week one, by week two you’ll have a local pub where you know the bartender by name, and by week three you’ll be completely settled in your tiny, overpriced accommodation and will have finished the excruciating reading list before your first official lecture.
But what if you haven’t met the group of people you fit in with yet, or if you haven’t found a pub which plays the right music all night long. What if you haven’t even started reading Dracula for your first class. What if a pandemic shuts the whole country down just as you were starting to settle in your new city? Are we missing out on these crucial years of university culture?
University culture might mean drinking till you pass out, sexual freedom found through living on your own for the first time, or maybe like most people it’s an opportunity to engage with a new landscape and be independent. Six months to adapt is a short time before you’re locked down and can curate enough banana bread to feed all the mouths in your building, but we had to do it. Perhaps you went home and felt robbed of your rent. Maybe you stayed in the city but got sick of the four walls that suffocated you Every. Single. Day. Is this the university experience we signed up for? I feel like I’m missing out. Missing the insufferable commute, missing sushi between classes, missing the nights out that remind me why I chose London over my small seaside town.
I feel like I’m missing out, but I also feel like I’ve gained from this time. I’m more creative, less anxious and actually have time to finish Dracula (even though I hate it)! Lockdown has taken so much from us, some an immeasurable amount, but for those who it has only taken their freedom to walk outside, maybe, like me, you have gained what you wouldn’t have before. Online university allows you to cook your breakfast and hug your cat whilst you learn how powerfully important the 60s teenager was to sexual liberation. If you’re on furlough, like me, you might have the extra undivided attention you needed for your assignments to get your first First. Maybe you now have common ground with your flatmates who are going through the same thing, so understand why you’ve eaten beans on toast every day for the past week. Lockdown has taken so much from us where we feel like we are missing out, but how nice will it be when we look back at this time to see that we have gained something: gained perspective on the fragility of life, gained better work habits, gained an online friend, gained half a stone. Missing out is an intense emotion that makes us feel like we are being cheated, in some cases we have been, but to find a positive in an overwhelming space of negatives makes you feel like you’re much less than missing out, rather looking forward to a new future.
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