“My Mother”, River Lover, River Arun, Rosanna Lowe,
A man reflects on the ebbs and flows of his complex relationship with his mother. He recalls his mother’s close bond with the water, her struggles with mental health and alcohol dependency, and her joyous moments of freedom in nature. A tale of love and loss on the River Arun.
Credits
Written by Rosanna Lowe
Read by Patrick Kealey
Recorded by Oliver Cherer
Edited by Elliot Lampitt
Commissioned and produced by Applause in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority.
A very special thanks to Lena and Darren MacAdam for sharing their very personal story.
And to all the members of the Arts on Prescription creative writing group.
Thanks too to Alison Williams-Bailey of Root and Branch Theatre, Andrew Ogierman of Aspire, Sue Groom, Anna Atkinson and the Consolations group, Gareth Williams of the Environment Agency, Margaret Sheehy and Jon Pratty of MSL Projects, Tamsin Payne and Mel Tudno-Jones, Philippa Anne Reed of Reed Maxfield, Rohan Heath, Holly Barber of Eco Monkey, Tara Reddy of Arts on Prescription, Chris, Bill and Alice Lowe, Rosie Lee and Jane Sowter. And, of course, the rivers.
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Rosanna Lowe
Rosanna is an experienced writer, director and performer. Pieces she has written/directed have been performed in theatres in the UK, France, Malaysia and the US and include the devised show Hummingbirds at the Young Vic, nominated for a Total Theatre Award in Edinburgh, Chester Tuffnut at Polka Theatre, The Bacchae in the Cultural Olympiad and co-writing/co-directing portmanteau feature film London Unplugged. She has written two climate change radio plays, winning Radio 4 and IRDP awards. Her work often focuses on history, people and place and ranges from sketch-writing for TV series Horrible Histories to co-writing Brighton The Graphic Novel. She has worked in travel writing, winning awards with the Royal Geographical Society Award and The Times. She lived in Guatemala during its civil war and wrote Volcanoland, a travel narrative, collecting extraordinary stories and testimonies about the war and its aftermath. She was the commissioned writer for Goonhilly Village Green, a multidisciplinary festival celebrating the nature, heritage and community of Goonhilly Downs. She is currently the Lead Storyteller for interactive children’s show Printer’s Playtime. She has worked on various heritage and engagement projects with arts organisation MSL, creating a series of audio story poems called Ordinary Extraordinary inspired by Hastings residents. Rosanna has run numerous creative writing projects, often with children, but also with mothers from Holloway Prison and with Creative Future. She currently runs writing for wellbeing sessions for Arts on Prescription, which caters for people, like herself, with mental or physical health inequalities.
