Jessie swims for Yellowfin

Please support me this August as I swim 68km - the same distance it would take to get across the English Channel and back again - to raise money for a truly wonderful new play.

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Dear friends,

As you know, the theatre industry has been on its knees for over a year now. I was incredibly lucky to have a salaried producing job for all of last year, which enabled me to survive without having to leave the industry. Now, as live performance is slowly waking up, I'm out on my own as a freelancer once more. It's exhilarating and very rewarding - but it's also terrifying in the current climate. What doesn't help matters is that I'm unable to sustain the level of work I used to because, since January, I have been struggling with the after-effects of Covid-19.

Don’t worry, this isn’t just a pity party.

I have two bits of good news.

One:

I have discovered swimming. Having never been a very strong swimmer - having relished any opportunity to get off swimming at school, in fact - I’m now finding it empowering. It really works for me as a gentle form of exercise that allows me to pace myself and regulate my breathing.

Admittedly, I'm still frustrated at not being able to do all the things I'd like to. I particularly miss running for trains to mitigate my usual tardiness. But I'm starting to get some fitness back again, and I hope that will only improve with more time in the pool.

Two:

I have a production coming up at Southwark Playhouse in October: a new play, Yellowfin, by emerging writer Marek Horn. It came to me two years ago and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. I had hoped to present it last year, but the play remains as relevant as ever in 2021 – and I am delighted that it will now have an opportunity to find its audience. Yellowfin is a brilliant play about an imagined near future where all the fish have disappeared from Earth. It is surprising, unsettling and bitingly funny. Set in the context of a US Senate tribunal where a man is suspected of illegally trading rare tuna products, it has urgent things to say about our justice system and how we treat our planet.

Yellowfin is an important project for those involved. For me, it's an opportunity to present my work in a run that is long enough for lots of people to see it. For Marek and other members of the team, it will be the first time they have presented their work in London. This is something we've all been working towards for several years, and we really want to get it right.

So! A cunning plan...

This August, I will be swimming 68km – the equivalent of a return trip across the English Channel – to raise the last chunk of money needed to present Yellowfin in a four-week run at Southwark Playhouse.

I am trying to challenge myself whilst also being realistic about what I can manage physically. Mostly I will be swimming in pools, but I also hope to take a trip to the seaside to reacquaint myself with our marine life before diving into the bleak, fish-free world of Marek’s play.

I’ll be posting regular updates about my progress – prepare yourselves for lots of deeply unflattering shots of me in goggles!

Any support you can offer would be hugely appreciated.

After a devastating year, theatre urgently needs people to champion it. I am proud to be one of those people and I hope you can be too.

A production like Yellowfin involves a large number of highly-skilled people. Although they are never paid as much as they deserve, they must at least be paid enough to live on. I am determined to give work to freelance theatre practitioners whilst also doing justice to this wonderful play.

I am therefore asking for your help in bringing Yellowfin to the stage.

Even in the best of years, this show would not have been able to break even on box office income alone, because the space is simply too small. This year, with uncertain seating capacities and a tough funding climate, the finances are painfully stretched.

So, whether you can give pounds or pennies, please do consider helping me and my poor battered lungs. My hope is that by the end of the month I will be fit enough to rush around the theatre again without sounding like a consumptive opera heroine…!

Thank you so much.

Jessie x