COLD

We are committed to raising awareness about the themes of this film.
It is free to view online here from Friday 26th April 2024.

COLD is a dark fairy tale, a thing of beauty, born of pain.

After a routine ante-natal appointment a thirty-something couple find themselves transported to a terrifying frozen forest in which they are unable to speak. Forced to shelter in a remote cabin, hunted by a ferocious wild beast and desperate to find their way home, they are forced to confront the brutal truth about themselves, each other and the future of their unborn child.

Cold is a deeply personal work for Director Claire Coaché and writer Lisle Turner. After experiencing an unavoidable medical termination and then a miscarriage in which Claire experienced near-fatal blood loss, they were determined to speak about a subject so often awkwardly avoided. The work is based not only on their experiences but on the first-person testimonies of other couples willing to speak about this subject.

Cold was shot on the mainstage of Courtyard Hereford while the venue was closed during Covid. The production combined the skillsets of theatre and film professionals to unique effect.

In late 2021 Cold previewed on cinema screens at Courtyard Hereford, Lyric Hammersmith and Theatre Royal Norwich. It’s inclusion in the London International Mime Festival saw the beginning of it’s 2022 festival tour. The film has subsequently screened in festivals all over the world and collected 27 awards.

CONTENT WARNING: Contains images of baby loss and miscarriage.

FEATURE FILM. 82MINS. BBFC 15.

Alongside Cold, Open Sky created Forest of The Lost, an online place of remembrance and mutual support for anyone touched by pregnancy loss, baby loss and termination for medical reasons.

Click here to stream the audio described version.

PRESS

  • ★★★★ "Powerful, hard-hitting & incredibly moving, COLD is essential viewing."

    From Page to Stage

  • ★★★★ “A moving and challenging film about every parent’s worst nightmare. COLD is beautiful and brutal. But there is hope too.”

    ReviewsHub

  • “Beautiful and heart-breaking. It looks extraordinary – a fusion of theatre and film that feels like a dream”

    Nick Duncalf, Presenter / Producer

    (In the Studio: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, BBC World Service. Behind the Scenes; Robert LePage, BBC Radio 4)

  • ★★★★ "This play is both exquisite and haunting. The cold is so visceral. The acting is superb."

    London Theatre Scene

  • “Devastating. Unique. Brave. Don’t miss it!”

    BBC Radio H&W

  • "A tale of unimaginable loss and emptiness. This important film has a full heart – whether you have direct experience of losing a baby or not, this has a beauty and force which retains great power.”

    LouReviews

  • “To take pain and make something beautiful from it is extraordinary enough, but COLD goes even further than that. It is theatrically ingenious, bold and arresting, and unflinchingly addresses what might be the most defining and universal of all human experiences - loss.”

    Gareth McLean, Journalist (Guardian, Radio Times)

  • “COLD is a mesmerising and hypnotic story of fear, impossible choices and terrible loss. It's a considerable achievement to have created a film so suffused with pain and heartbreak that is at the same time a thing of understated beauty that lingers long after the closing credits.”

    Hereford Times

  • “Go and see COLD when it comes out. It's an extraordinary and powerful and important piece of work that moved me more than I'd have imagined.”

    Julia Bueno, Psychotherapist & Author of ‘The Brink of Being’

AWARDS

Cold Festival Award Rosettes
Cold Festival Award Rosettes
Image+10-11-2021+at+18.26.jpg
COLD+by+Open+Sky+(Jacob+Meadows)+photo+by+Kie+Cummings.jpg
DSC00036.jpg
DSC01873.jpg
DSC03327-6000x4000.jpg
DSC03483-6000x4000.jpg
DSC07051.jpg
Image+10-11-2021+at+18.10.jpg
Image%2B10-11-2021%2Bat%2B18.12.jpg
Image%2B10-11-2021%2Bat%2B18.14.jpg
Image+10-11-2021+at+18.16.jpg
Image%2B10-11-2021%2Bat%2B18.23+%281%29.jpg

CAST

  • FALDA - JANET ETUK

  • ULF - JACOB MEADOWS

  • HEX DR - CLAIRE COACHÉ

CREW

Performed by
JANET ETUK, JACOB MEADOWS & CLAIRE COACHÉ

Conceived, written and directed by         
CLAIRE COACHÉ & LISLE TURNER

Produced by
ALISON KING & LISLE TURNER

Director of Photography - DOMINIC BARTELS
Composer - JONNY PILCHER
Editor - FLAURA ATKINSON
Production & Costume Design - CARL DAVIES
Sound Recordist - ADAM BERTENSHAW
Focus Puller - CHRIS STARKEY             
Camera Assistant - RICH BERTENSHAW
Gaffer - BEN SANSOM  
Production Photographer / Videographer -
KIE CUMMINGS
Hair, Make-Up & Prosthetics - EVA-JEAN WRIGHT         
Hair & Make-Up Assistant - LAURA MOSS  
Rigger - ALEX HARVEY
Production Design Assistant - ALICE SADLER
Set Carpentry - LEWIS PRESCOTT
Associate Producer - KELLY BRAY   
Company Stage Manager & First AD - EMILY WALLS
Catering - BEN HOLDEN
Catering Assistant - POPPY MASON

Edit House - STITCH
Edit Producer - ANGELA HART
Assistant Editor - LAURA REYES DARIAS
Edit House Runner - LAURA ZVARÍKOVÁ

Post Production provided by Onsight LTD:
Head of Development - TONY MAHER
Post Producer - JESS NETLEY-VERRINDER
Colourist - ANDY LEE
DAC - ALFIE MITCHELL
Sound Designer - BLAIR JOLLANDS
Dialog Editor - VICENTE VILLAESCUSA
Foley Artist - AMAYA SOLER
Foley Engineer - JAVI DELGADO
Re-Recording Mixer - CLIFF REEVES

Online Editor - DAVID JONES
Titles Design & Animation - OLIVE JOHNSON
Additional Visual Effects - CENAY OEKMEN

For Turtle Key Arts:
Chief Executive - ALISON KING
Artistic Director - CHARLOTTE CUNNINGHAM
Marketing & Development Director - SHAUN DAWSON
Finance Manager - ALAN BOWYER
Senior Producer - HOLLY CAMERON-JENNINGS
Producer - KELLY BRAY
Project And Office Administrator - ELLEN MCGAHEY   

WITH THANKS TO:

Story contributors:

Helen, Caroline, Jenny, Elle, Olive, Rebecca, Deepa, Deborah, Amy, Beatrice & Lucy.

Our partners and supporters:

Thomas Wildish, Ian Archer, David Durant, Richard Loveridge, Connell Hulme, Phil Percy, Katie Owens, Jessica Prosser, John de la Cour, Richard Matthews, Grant Black, Nic Millington, Jessica Hepburn, Gabby Vaultier, Julia Bueno, Jane Fisher, Ruth Bender-Atik, Mia Gordon, Jack Hughes, Gillian Hipp, Estelle Van Warmelo, Tamsin Fitzgerald, Amy Scott, Trilby Drew, Tom Edwards, Laurence Edney, Lizanne Crowther, Cenay Oekmen, Gareth McLean, Paddy O’Connell, Eddie Mair.

Courtyard Hereford
The Costume Store
The Invisible Arts Network
Rural Media
FertilityFest
Antenatal Results And Choices
The Miscarriage Association
Hereford College Of Arts
Ockhams Razor
Feral Productions
2faced Dance
Vamos Theatre
Bristol Old Vic
Steiner Academy Hereford
Primo DVP
Pixipixel 
Video Europe            
VI Rental

OPEN SKY PRODUCED by Turtle Key Arts present COLD in partnership with the Courtyard Hereford.

SUPPORTED BY FertilityFest, ANTENATAL RESULTS AND CHOICES (ARC), and THE MISCARRIAGE ASSOCIATION

Funded by Arts Council England National Lottery Funding with financial support from The Elmley Foundation, Herefordshire Community Foundation AND our generous crowdfunders:

Sian Allen, Janet Amoroso, Sue Berridge, Mike Briggs, Kirk & Reinette Brown, David Byrne, David Coaché, Peter Coaché, Will & Jemima Cookson, Charlotte Cunningham, Amy Dowling, Kate Edwards, Patrick Elder, Tim Evans, Jeanette Farrier, Juliet Gallagher, Janey Hawtin, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Sarah Higginson, Ben Hughes, Connor Kalista, Alison King, Dave L, Eddie Mair, Lee Mason, Rees Matthews, Mina Nakamura, Marsha O'Mahony, Ben Ogunbiyi, Rachel Peacock, Erika Poole, Maxine Smith, Jo Stimfield, Catherine Tennant, Cara Tivey, Jennifer Turner, Lindy Turner, Fuen Vera, Lynn Wilson, Simon Wales, Ollie Wilkes, Rebecca Woodford-Smith, Jenny Lewis & G Dunn, Ledbury Market Theatre

Our support team:

Jeanette Farrier, Lynn Wilson, Lindy Turner, Jo Brierley, Yuta Fairs-Billam, Jenny Lewis, Sally Holden, Wendy Lane.