producer

Listen to “The Colours” on Spreaker.

Listen to “The Colours of Loss” on Spreaker.

Crowded Room and the University of Bristol present two creative explorations of grief and the process of dying.

The first episode, The Colours, tells the story of Harriet Madeley’s experiences at a seaside hospice in South Wales, where she went to explore the most universal and individual, normal and abnormal of situations: nearing the end of life. This episode combines extracts from her audio-recorded interviews with the personal experiences and reflections of Harriet and director Max Barton.

The second episode is the result of two creative workshops run by Mark Knightley, Lesel Dawson, and Amanda Seyderhelm with small groups of bereaved people. During the workshop, the participants worked together to create a fictional story inspired by the death of a beloved tree. The participants’ words and voices were recorded and then woven together to form The Colours of Loss, a new fictional audio story that movingly explores the varied and volatile emotions that follow loss.

Read Grief and Collaborative Storytelling: The Colours of Loss, the open-access article about this action research project which was published in the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health.

CREATIVE TEAM

The Colours of Loss
Editor: Mark Knightley
Workshop designers: Lesel Dawson, Amanda Seyderhelm, Mark Knightley & Harriet Madeley
Researchers: Lucy Pocock, Lesel Dawson & Rachel Hare
Composer: Jordan Mallory-Skinner
Producer: Hannah Tookey
Illustrator: Luke W Robson

The Colours
Director: Max Barton
Writer: Harriet Madeley
Sound Designer: Jethro Cooke

With thanks to Dr Idris Baker, Ty Olwen Hospice, Dr Mark Taubert, Velindre Cancer Centre and all interviewees.

The words spoken by Dr Baker and Dr Taubert have been combined into a single character for simplicity of storytelling.