Last Call

Last Call is a series of site-responsive short films based on the poetry of Jean Atkin, inspired by stories centred around the old village stalwart — the red British telephone box.

BACKGROUND

Continuing the now-established Feral model of researching a local site with universal relevance and responding to it through poetry, Last Call focuses on what is perhaps not an obvious performance arena, the red telephone box.

The project was born out of a chance meeting between Feral artistic director Estelle van Warmelo and poet Jean Atkin back in 2019. Jean spoke of her enthusiasm for the icon of a bygone era, the red telephone box, and explained how she had been photographing them for years with an eye to expanding the creative playing field.

Backed by the support of The Courtyard Hereford, Estelle and Jean set about researching old-style red boxes that remained standing in the local area. Following a period of location scouting, Jean began crafting poetry that would serve as inspiration for digital development.

Estelle noted that “as Jean’s fine words became poems, they dropped, village by village, into my email and the stories and characters tumbled onto the page. Our digital contact in enforced separation reflected moments of interaction in history, held by tiny wires across the miles. We were struck by how much meaning they carried, these icons of a bygone age, how much significance.”

While many of the boxes now exist in varying states of disrepair, a good number have been repurposed and live on as community libraries or defibrillator storage locations.

While detailing the project on social media, Estelle and Jean were astonished by the outpouring of public affection for the phone boxes and the prevalence of stories people had about them. Jean reflected that Last Call was able to capture a “sense of voices on the line, indeed of that very last voice caught in the wires, even as the telephone itself is stripped from the box.”

CREDITS

Artistic Direction — Estelle van Warmelo

Cinematography — Kie Cummings

Production Design — Carl Davies

Directed for Camera — Lisle Turner

Music and Sound Design — Sophie Cooper

Inspired by original poems by Jean Atkin

Production Management — Mina Nakamura

Production Photography — Gabriella Karney

Admin — Chloe Bradman

Finance — Jordan Todd

Marketing — Tom Eperjesi

CAST

Best Man — Ellis Kerkhoven

Tony — Chris Morgan

Margaret — Kara Lyons

Rosie — Claire Coaché

The Husband — Ellis Kerkhoven

Taxi Man — Robert Traynor

Mary — Clêr Stephens

Woman — Laura Bayston

Lily — Lily Jones

Toby — Toby Jones

Young Man — Fletcher Garrard

The Box — Robert Traynor

Woman — Kate Pothecary

Belle The Dog — Dash

Additional Dialogue — Jake Blanchard, Sophie Cooper