On the tail end of theatre’s announcing shows up and down the country and after some sneaky retweets on their Twitter page, Emilia The Play is joining in the excitement by returning! Audiences will be able to view an archived recording of the West End production of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s Emilia by streaming it online to enjoy at home.

What makes this production even more exciting for prospective viewers is that the stream comes with a pay-what-you-can model. It’s incredibly accessible for those unable to contribute a lot of money to the creative industries during this difficult time, even though they are eager to help theatres get back on their feet.

Viewers are encouraged to give at least £1 to see the piece, which was taped back in London during its run at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2019. Proceeds from the online recording will be shared across the entire team involved in the 2019 production.

Emilia tells the story of Emilia Bassano: Renaissance poet, polemicist and contemporary of Shakespeare. Some people believe she is the ‘dark lady’ of the sonnets.

The show’s writer, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, released this statement on Twitter earlier to announce the news;

“We are releasing a filmed version of Emilia to provide much needed hope and inspiration during this most difficult of times for our industry. Emilia’s story has empowered audience members and provoked an unprecedented online feminist movement for a theatre production.

“It felt the right time to make our show available to fans, writing Emilia Bassano into her rightful place in history. The effects of COVID-19 have devastated the theatre industry, so we will be sharing profits amongst our amazing all-female creative team, cast and backstage team.

“As theatre has had to migrate online, we wanted to find a way to connect audiences as much as possible - I can't wait to join our audiences for the watch-along premiere and we can all celebrate Emilia’s story together - wherever we are in the world!”

The Emilia team have also produced captioned and audio described recordings of the show The piece will be streamed from the 10-24 November.

You can get involved with fellow Emilia fans and audience members through the hashtags #EmiliaWatchParty and #IAmEmilia.

For more information, please click here.