Coventry's own TV soap about life in lockdown

A Coventry performance company has created an online TV soap opera made to focus on life in lockdown, attracting thousands of views from around the world.

EGO Performance has created Corona-nation Street, a new soap opera series showing life in these unprecedented times, with the first three episodes receiving over 7500 views from around the world including Turkey, New Zealand, Spain, France and Ireland.

The episodes, which are released on the EGO Facebook page every Friday at 7pm, follows key characters as they struggle with lockdown scenarios living on Corona-nation Street.

This inspiring and inclusive arts company, has members from the ages of eight-upwards helping to work on the project, which has been written, directed and filmed by its members, with funding from the Coventry City of Culture Trust.

The popularity of the series has also encouraged EGO to apply to the Arts Council for funding to create an additional 20 episodes of the series.

Local people are being encouraged to get involved with the series by submitting pictures of their streets to feature in the opening titles, and for a small donation of £5, can receive a shoutout in an episode.

Georgina Egan, joint Artistic Director for EGO Performance, said: “We wanted to create a project that all our company could get involved with, that was a light hearted reflection on what many of us are experiencing.

“EGO works to create a safe inclusive place for people of all ages and abilities to get involved and develop their creative and life skills. It’s been wonderful to see so many of our members wanting to get involved in this project.

“We‘ve had such positive feedback so far from viewers from around the world so we are looking forward to seeing the response to the upcoming episodes – we can’t believe how far and wide the episodes have reached already!

“We have also had lovely feedback from members who have learning disabilities or struggle with mental health issues, saying that this project has really helped them during these tough times as a creative outlet and something to look forward to creating and watching each week.”

Chenine Bhathena, Creative Director at City of Culture added: “This project by EGO Performance is a unique look at life in lockdown and is a great example of the kind of work that can still be produced and delivered to a mass audience in these times.

“It’s also great to see a project that gives so many people an outlet for their creativity. The entire team have an incredibly busy schedule to write, film and edit these episodes in time for the next one to be released each Friday.

“The Trust has worked with EGO and supported the additions of captioning and BSL interpretation so that they can grow and develop their audiences and more people can log on to this pandemic-inspired soap opera.”

To watch Corona-nation Street, visit https://www.facebook.com/EGOPerformance/