Source Material

Here we lay out the content of the Cabaret with links to explore each original further.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mpJI4-kxxhQ

Watch here

'Strange'

Finlay (2020)

We fell in love with this haunting track, released just as the lockdown commenced. It seemed the perfect way to open the show. With thanks to Globetown Records for permission.

Read the full poem

'History'

Robert Lawrence Binyon (c. 1925)

It perhaps seems strange to start a piece that draws from the lessons of history with a poem that points out history's weaknesses.
But we like to be contrary.

Visit the page

Lockdown Lingo

This series of comic definitions for new words was found on the wonderful facebook page Overheard in Waitrose.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/R6qFG0uop9k

Watch & Listen

'I got it from Agnes'

Tom Lehrer (1953)

Tom Lehrer, one of the all-time great comic lyricists, gifted us this little beauty back in the 1950s.

Read the full text here

The Plague

Albert Camus (1947)

Shockingly prescient, Camus' imaginary conjuring of a town in lockdown was one we couldn't miss.

The Fearful Summer

John Taylor (1647)

John Taylor was not only a prolific poet, but a Thames Ferryman. Just like an Uber driver today, we thought that this occupation probably gave him a particular insight into London during the plague.

Find out more

A Journal of the Plague Year

Daniel Defoe (1722)

As we move further back in time, human behaviour seems strangely unchanged in similar circumstances.

Angels in America

Tony Kushner (1992)

'Angels' is one of the most extraordinary pieces of writing for the modern stage. Utterly epic, it not only spans about 8 hours of playing time, but moves between the heavenly and the profane, the real and the mythical and the straight, gay and trans communities of the time. An unexpectedly huge hit both in America and in its original production at The National Theatre, it brought the experience of those living with HIV further out into the open. The story of Roy Cohn and his diagnosis is a true one, leaving him to be shunned by political society, including a young Donald Trump. It really was a social death.

Read our extract

'The Lovesick Bacillus'

This utterly and charmingly bonkers song about Microbes came from a book of Victorian music called Nine Medical Songs by Blumfeld, Ransome, Chadborn, published in 1895.

Damaged Goods

Eugene Brieux (1901)

As Kirsten Shepherd Barr explains in her short talk within the Contagion Cabaret, this play - now almost lost to posterity - was a huge and controversial hit in its time - dealing openly with the topic of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. It later became both a novel and, as you see below, a film.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JFm2hrzxn-4

Watch & Listen

'The Herpes Tango'

Fascinating Aida (1997)

The ever-brilliant comedy-music trio deliver the goods again!

With thanks to Fascinating Aida and Dillie Keane for kind permission.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Eo9M4-BrJA

Watch & Listen

'Coronavirus Rhapsody'

Words by Dana Jay Bein, Music by Queen

This recent hit on social media brought unexpected prominence to the American comedian who coined the new lyrics.

Find out more

Litte Dorrit

Charles Dickens (1857)

In this extract, in a chapter set on the dockside in Marseilles, two passers-by exchange their infuration at being quarantined.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qO0hijDNgo8

Watch & Listen

'Isolation'

John Lennon (1970)

We fell in love with the hauntingly simple tune from the great songsmith.

The Road

Cormac McCarthy (2006)

A haunting and tender passage from the great post-apocalyptic novel of our times. The narrator describes the father and son, who are apparently amongst a handful of survivors from some great cataclysm, discover an underground bunker. The sense of preparations made, but never acted upon, is powerfully emotional.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oPNjvvUkmuo

Watch & Listen

'Hush Hush Hush'

Paula Cole (1996)

This beautiful song was written about a father seeing his young HIV-afflicted son in his hospital bed. But we felt the lyrics and sentiment carried further to many other situations where family members see (or are prevented from seeing) their sick loved ones. With thanks to Paula Cole and her management for permission.

Find out more

The Roses of Eyam

Don Taylor (1970)

This beautiful play deals with the extraordinary story of Eyam, a small village in Derbyshire. It was infected with the plague due to flea-infested fabrics brought from London. The villagers, led by their two Rectors, made the courageous decision to protect others by self-quarantining the village, resulting in more deaths of their friends and neighbours.

Find out more

The Last Man

Mary Shelley (1826)

There is great resilience and hope in this extract from Mary Shelley's late novel.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qs6G9tisVdU

Watch & Listen

'Better Things'

The Kinks (1981)

So, to send us off into the future, this uplifting glimpse of the future from The Kinks.

Immunity Passports

Dr Nicola Fawcett, who speaks during the Contagion Cabaret of the strengths and weaknesses of the Immunity Passport idea, has shared some additional resources illustrating the mathematics and the science behind her arguments.

Find out about the World Health Organisation's stance on ‘immunity passports’ here. An in-depth commentary on immunity passports in medical journal The Lancet. Find two pieces discussing current tests available, and the maths behind why “95% accuracy” can be wrong half the time here and here.