Edelman, J., Seaton, Z., Kemp, L., 2024.

Granny Jackson's Dead - Grief Tech, Theatre and Research

Granny Jackson's Dead is a collaborative theatre production that
represents an innovative fusion of immersive theatre, cutting-edge
technology, and research into the themes of grief, memory, and the
role of technology in contemporary mourning practices. It also
demonstrates how the arts can spark innovation in research
through co-created knowledge exchange.
Zoë Seaton, Artistic Director of Big Telly Theatre Company from Northern
Ireland and Dr Josh Edelman, as part of a team at the Manchester School of
Theatre at MMU, were awarded a research grant in June 2023 as part of the
second round of the Centre for Cultural Value's Collaborate programme (ht-
tps://www.culturalvalue.org.uk/collaborate-fund). The fund supported in-
novative new partnerships between cultural sector practitioners and aca-
demics to explore novel questions around cultural value, and Granny Jack-
son's Dead examined commemoration, mourning, performance and the di-
gital - exploring how we can use immersive theatre to look afresh at "arts-
led dialogue". Big Telly are a pioneering theatre company, funded by Arts
Council of Northern Ireland, who use creativity as a catalyst to provoke
thought and explore the possibility of change. They work closely with com-
munities to establish frameworks which offer new ways to connect and all
of their work is interactive, co-created and bespoke. Other team members
included Kirsty Fairclough and Michael Pinchbeck from MMU and Eleanor
O'Keeffe from the Centre of Deliberative Research at the National Centre of
Social Research.