Pandemic Diary: Collaboration with Lucy McCormick and Morven Mulgrew

Makers:
Lucy McCormick and Morven Mulgrew

Lucy Muck makes nightclub interruptions, cabaret interventions and extravaganza theatre shows, marrying interests in absurdity, feminism and the grotesque. Her practice is cross-genre, taking inspiration from theatre, performance art, comedy and dance.

Morven Mulgrew is an interdisciplinary artist based in London. Working across performance, sculpture, costume and design she makes live work, costume and artefact concerned with the body.

Creating a theatre show during the pandemic…

When the pandemic hit, makers Lucy McCormick and Morven Mulgrew were halfway through creating the theatre production Life: Live. Here they share some of the processes, emails, material testing and look creation that went into making a show – whilst isolating and not being able to make in the same room for large chunks of time…

Listen to Lucy and Morven in conversation with Jade French:

“Pop culture as this throwaway thing is actually the deepest thing about it”

On the premise of the show:

Lucy: “[Because of the pandemic] it’s really now turned into the premise of the show is that Morven and I are trying to create a sort of stadiums scale pop concert on a DIY budget. So we’re trying to create the spectacle and the excitement, and the glamour and the atmosphere of a stadium with sort of strip wood from B&Q and stuff that we can buy, you know, in markets and stuff. So that’s the aim and that was I’ve written these sort of pop songs to go along with the Yeah, that kind of visual journey.

On having to use DIY materials:

Morven: “I started making pots. And because I have any skills in that area, it could be very loose. And I made a decision to make my work as loosely made as possible and to have confidence in that”

“I started making these boots for for Lucy and then I was like, I’m just gonna I gaffer just gaffer tape them on to an existing pair of boots. I’m gonna, I think I’m gonna uncover this heel and silicone, you know, like you get for your bathroom. And it just, I don’t know, it just means that I can have more joy in my work, which I think makes me more creative…”