Dating takes a creative turn

A new short from director Peter Lydon and writer Lorelei Mathias is a weird and wonderful five-minute film that takes the premise of a creative writing class and turns it into an educating in dating etiquette.

We find a series of people sat in a living room, a teacher leading the group, and a call to the students to read out their work. But instead of snippets from work-in-progress novels, or verses from unpublished poetry, we're treated to as-yet-unsent text messages to prospective dates.  

The film features a host of great characters, like the belligerent Alan, played by Tom Wragg, and kindly Rob, played by Rob Mayhew (who you might recognise from his popular TikTok channel). But the star of the show is Lola, an ADHD dreamer played by Mathias, who wrote the film and who has been diagnosed with ADHD herself. 

"Creative Writing 2.1 came about from me observing friends of mine sharing dating related texts with each other for feedback and redrafts [which were] reminiscent of a creative writing class," said Mathias. "That was the kernel - the rest was just seeing how far you can push that to the point of silliness (like most my sketches, and the best ads!). I wrote it in lockdown, then workshopped the script at London Comedy Writers and Hoopla Improv. Then Peter came along with his storytelling prowess, beefed up the characters, introduced more amazing comic talent and turned it into a really well-rounded short film. Him being neurotypical has also brought some balance to the project. He’s good at structure – an area I’m clinically less good at!"

"I’ve known Lorelei since she was a creative at BMB," said Lydon. "We kept in touch over the years as I saw her finding her voice as a writer. When she took the leap to write and perform it was only a question of time before we’d work together. Lorelei has such energy and so many great ideas. Once we knew which of her scripts we wanted to run with it, was a super collaborative process. I love how Lorelei channels her own ADHD traits (e.g. having no inner-editor) into the hapless but lovable Lola, creating a genuinely comedic character that we are now developing for TV. Cast wise, most of them came from Lorelei’s collective Melon Comedy."

Mathias says that living with ADHD is like "your brain has no air-traffic control centre, so all your thought-aeroplanes crash into one another constantly, and no one is in charge to say when something’s gone off track." She says it can be horrific, but also hilarious. "Being able to laugh at the ridiculous situations we get in has been nothing short of life-saving," she adds. "That’s the whole reason Melon – a collective with a foot in Melbourne and London – was born. Our M.O. is that ‘comedy is the best meds’. I’m super-proud that our sketches have resonated with NT’s (neurotypicals) and ADHD-ers alike."