Touchstone Tales: ‘stories of touch inspired by the lives of Lutonians.’
‘Epic in miniature’- Carl Miller, director/Playwright
Touchstone Tales
Touchstone Tales is a body of new work resulting from Sudha Bhuchar’s year-long participatory creative residency, co commissioned by Revoluton Arts/ Wellcome Collection.
HOW IMPORTANT IS TOUCH TO YOU?
IS THERE ENOUGH TOUCH IN THE WORLD OR ARE WE EXPERIENCING COLLECTIVE ‘TOUCH HUNGER’ IN THESE TROUBLING TIMES?’
The residency ran in conjunction with the national Touch Test survey, the world’s largest study on TOUCH commissioned by Wellcome and in partnership with Goldsmiths University and BBC Radio4.
The results of The Touch Test were announced on Radio 4 in October 2020 on Anatomy of Touch, presented by Claudia Hammond.
Sudha’s is an artist response to the study, exploring the concept and experience of human physical contact with communities in Bury Park, Luton. No one had anticipated this unprecedented year, when Covid 19 stole so much human contact.
Questions from the survey were explored creatively looking at the importance of touch in wellbeing, unwanted touch, the concept of touch hunger and whether virtual touch can ever replace skin to skin contact.
Sudha engaged with groups that include Pink Diamond Martial Arts Club, Dar Aminah Bookclub, a local High school, wellbeing groups at Bury Park Community Centre and many shopkeepers, local artists, parents, and individuals.
Participants shared their stories of touch before and during lockdown and these face-to-face recorded interviews, online and physical workshops and many creative encounters inspired the final writing. In turn, participants expressed feeling ‘listened to’, the value of reflecting on their lives through the prism of touch and experiencing their transformed narratives performed.
The result is Touchstone Tales, a unique collection of 7 revealing and illuminating stories, comprising 6 monologues and a duologue. These are: Romancing in Bury Park, Desi Cake Lover, The Ninja Sister, The Eid Hug, In Search of the Fairy Queen, And the World kept turning and Roses & Paisley.
These fictional self-portraits were performed on zoom in two parts. Together with the crowd sourced/ co created film, Ramadan in Lockdown Luton, edited by Lydia Howe and co-created by participants who shared footage of their Ramadan journey, Touchstone Tales chronicles the recent times the communities of Luton have lived through, seen through the prism of ‘touch’.
Touchstone Tales is set in the period spanning from the first lockdown in March 2020 to before the second in Autumn 2020. The larger canvas of the Covid 19 pandemic gives an extra resonance which makes Touchstone Tales both viscerally relevant and enduring. The characters in the stories have interwoven/interconnected lives and are all talking to the absent writer, Sudha.
The stories have also been captured as audio podcasts and a published text and can be watched, listened to, and read.
Touchstone Tales is directed by Kristine Landon-Smith and produced for audio by Jonquil Panting of Jonx Productions. The music is by Niraj Chag with singing by Japjit Kaur.
Touchstone Tales Blog
Sudha captured her creative journey through writing blogs shared on Revoluton Arts website and social media. Carl Miller wrote a foreword to the publication.
Touchstone Tale Audio Monologues
The legacy of Touchstone Tales captures these unique stories as audio podcasts performed by the cast and produced by Jonquil Panting of Jonx Productions.
All Touchstone Tales images/photos by Ferdusi Jahan
What People Are Saying
“Brilliant! Beautifully bittersweet stories, heartfelt and engaging performances. Love the songs too.”
— Peter Singh, actor
“Great stories, beautiful writing – congrats to all involved. Honouring people and their stories.”
— Arti Prashar
“Loved it all. Really moving and beautifully done everyone.”
— Jonquil Panting, JONX PRODUCTIONS
“Very clever to interpret touch in so many ways.”
— Suma Din
“I’ve never experienced anything like that – it has a light in the dark!”
— Poppy Jhakra, actor
“I was blown away by this production, so innovative and fresh.”
— Madiha Ansari, The Cultural Ecology Project
Our Partners
Knowledge sits in many places. When Wellcome Collection commissioned the Touch Test with BBC Radio 4 in January 2020, we knew we would hear about experiences of touch from many thousands of people all over the world. Just as we knew the team of researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, would place those experiences in the context of existing scientific knowledge. Revoluton Arts and Wellcome Collection commissioned Touchstone Tales to achieve something very different. But equally as important. To hear about experiences of touch from within a community, placed in the context of daily life, of religion, of family, of hope and of loss. Touchstone Tales is an independent exploration of touch led by artistic research, informed by science and expressed through art. It comes from an overlap of two core beliefs at the heart of our two organizations. For Revoluton Arts, a commitment to highlight the creativity within Luton’s communities. For Wellcome Collection, that our understanding of health is enriched when art, life, science and medicine work together. Sudha and her collaborators, the communities of the Bury Park area of Luton, have overwhelmed us, delighted us and challenged us with their responses.
Jenny Williams (Revoluton Arts) and David Cahill Roots (Wellcome Collection)
