Get Out There!
In August 2020, Jolie walked 500 miles on pilgrimage along the St Michael & St Mary ley lines, right across the width of the UK. During this inspirational and transformative experience, she grew increasingly sensitive to the ley lines and the energies of the hedgerow plants that helped to sustain her both nutritionally and emotionally, becoming lifelong friends. This Autumn, she wants to share this experience with other people.
Arts Council England has funded Jolie to create an immersive theatrical experience that will be created by the public. Selected applicants will have the opportunity to walk the land, travelling along the ‘Spine of Albion’ Belinus and Ellen ley lines, with the intention of sharing a performative message and People’s Charter at the UN Climate Change Conference 2021.
The walk will cover an 8-week period, setting off from London on Saturday 4th September and ending in Glasgow in early November for several days of rehearsals and public performances throughout the city, before presenting the final performance to Negotiators at the UN Climate Change Conference on Monday 8th November. The pilgrimage will be an extended promenade experience, as the walkers develop a play or piece of performance along the journey, trusting the walk and the land to inform the direction of the narrative, with the emphasis being on listening to what is coming through from the land and the people they encounter. This project is open to everyone, including those who have no previous creative experience but would love to learn new skills and get involved. The project actively seeks to engage participants from marginalised communities and those who don’t normally engage with arts or wildlife activities.
We will walk around 10 miles a day, with one day off each week, based where possible around one of the many sacred node points along the route. Non-walking days will be used for workshopping performance ideas, including some kind of public sharing, with the other half of the day available as free time. Each week along the walk, different artists, writers, theatre-practitioners, land workers, community groups and environmentalists will join the walkers to share their experiences, expertise and wisdom, taking part in evening Moots to discuss ideas, whilst also supporting the walkers during the day off, to experiment with different performative concepts. Accompanying the walk will be a series of online videos created by the Seed Sistas to teach walkers and the public about some of the hedgerow plants we will encounter, and share their healing attributes and mythology. The public will be engaged along the route through a national and local PR campaign, encouraging people to join us and walk throughout the day. The videos will also encourage families to come dressed up as their favourite hedgerow plants. The pilgrims will be people who are creatively curious, passionate about the planet, fit and able to undertake such a physical enterprise, and who really desire to commit to this endeavour. A team of elves are currently booking places for the pilgrims to stay along the route, contacting farms, organic orchards, National Trust and English Heritage properties, Girl Guide camps and regular campsites to see if they will let us spend one night for free on their land as we make our way north. The walkers will take it in turns to crew set-up, shopping, and cooking, building a caring and supportive community. Each day one crew will set up the kitchen and compost toilet, and set up a yurt with a wood burning stove, creating a warm communal space to socialise in together... The second crew will shop for supplies, cook dinner, and prepare a packed lunch for the next day.
The walk will regularly connect with the public, scratching (testing) performance ideas along the way to help develop the piece, and to spend time collating the hopes and fears of the people. This research will be collected and collated into a People’s Charter, that will be shared throughout on an online platform so everyone who has contributed can see how the charter is growing and developing throughout the walk. Through this we will begin to develop a legacy in the form of a growing network woven along the route of initiatives, groups and individuals who are like minded or have solutions that might be useful to others encountered.
In the first round of applications the callout was for pilgrims interested in walking for the full 8 weeks and we were surprised to receive a huge response. The team had to make the decision to accept the first 30 suitable applicants. We had not been expecting such a large number of pilgrims committed to doing the full walk and in light of COVID feel this needs to be the limit. This will be a bubble of people being fed and accommodated for. There will also be an additional 10 walkers in terms of practitioners coming and going fed and accommodated in a separate bubble. This website therefore allows us to share the pilgrimage route with the public so that anyone can join the walk during the daytimes and track our progress. This also acts as an online platform we can use for collating and developing the People’s Charter and the walk’s network.