40-Odd Days

40 Odd Days is our new comedy mini-series of 7 episodes. It’s about a group of six young actors and the funny, intense, and lasting relationships that can quickly form in a touring theatre group that travels around Europe for a season. All the tensions, the problems, and stresses, all the laughter, all the silly, ridiculous, sometimes glorious experiences that happen and form the group. It’s not “Friends” but it’s friendly. 

40 Odd Days has the six actors, Becca, Caz, Charlie, Lucas, Matt, and Thomas, suddenly overnight stuck in their apartment in Catalunya, Spain for forty-odd days at the start of the Covid epidemic. No flights, no work, everything stopped.  40 Odd Days is loosely inspired on what happened when our actors were thrown into lockdown in March 2020 and decided to make the most of their “captivity” during the early days of the epidemic when we were all not sure what was going to happen. 

While 40 Odd Days does not ignore the tragic side of this time which was becoming more apparent, it is, above all, a comedy with the six actors inside the apartment. We have a couple of possible love stories, some quarrels and arguments and a few truly ridiculous ideas that somehow actually work. There are some tears, much laughter, even some real joy, as we watch Becca, Caz, Charlie, Lucas, Matt, and Thomas get through their days trying, nearly always, to be united and make the best of things. Everyone who went through their lockdown can imagine the early days but there is surely no lockdown that can possibly be like the one a team of young actors choose to go through.

Some things are based on a few of the many amazingly true events that have actually happened to us over the years: only sometimes heightened for comic effect, while most things are just made up. Like our stage plays, this mini-series is intended to be funny, human, honest yet kind, and ultimately optimistic. It is a natural partner to many of our live plays in theme, character and development of quite a few plot lines: while being an original piece of work.

There is a full accompanying class pack for each specific episode, divided by language levelwith plenty of choice of activities for the teacher to choose for their particular classes comprising of comprehension and further interpretation, language work and further activities. All prepared with a careful sensitivity to the environment that our mini-series takes place in.