Corona Daze

The Covid lockdowns may seem like a distant and vaguely painful memory now but back in 2020 they were our reality: isolated, house-bound, and uncertain. Corona Daze, written by Alice Bragg and Lucie Capel transports us back to the days of excessive hand sanitisation, toilet-roll hoarding and virtual communication.

Nicky (Alice Bragg) is a middle-class mum and estate agent who struggles to cope with daily life (and her family) under government-imposed lockdown. Bragg presents Nicky’s descend into madness through Skype calls with her (non-existent) mother as they share the absurdities of daily life and how to be a good mother during this unprecedented time.

The theme of motherhood is at the centre of this play as Nicky falls down rabbit holes with parenting both her nursery school aged daughter as well as her 14-year-old. The ‘Woodpecker’ Whatsapp group is continuously pinging with messages on homeschooling, pasta necklaces and cake baking tasks. With each message, Nicky becomes more frantic and competitive.

When she is not worrying about the achievements of 4-year-olds, she turns her attention to her teenage daughter. At one point, confiding to her mother that she’s been influenced by a school friend resulting in a newfound love of the music genre ‘grime’. The white, middle-class characterisation is evident, yet fails to be self-deprecating enough. At best its cringeworthy and veers on socially ignorant at its worst.

There is a brief respite from mania when Nicky has seemingly found yoga and wellness. Soothing sound bowl music is played as Nicky walks calmly onto the stage in her yoga clothes, but this sudden contrast is short-lived when she facetimes her mum and her tone immediately becomes hysterical again. Bragg has bound herself to this technique so tightly that she cannot act out a single scene without it.

The use of voiceover announcements from familiar politicians of the time such as Boris Johnson or Dominic Cummings had potential but failed to be woven in effectively to the family life depicted in front of us.

Corona Daze felt doomed from the start due to the writing and characterisation of the Nicky; she is neither witty nor likeable and thus fails to convince us that her incessant fears are worth even laughing at. Much like lockdown, this play had me feeling bored, uneasy, and wondering when it would end.