Artist’s Statement: Donne’s observations of lovers are so beautiful and I find his honest passionate exploration of life, love, sex, death – la petite mort, captivating. The Expiration embodies all of these themes. ‘To die’ was ‘to orgasm’ in Renaissance writing and this influenced my desire to make a sensuously rich film. In adapting this love story, I aspire to reveal the layers I see within Donne’s words. I hope to evoke the emotional effect this poem has on me and to honour the wonder of loving and the bittersweet joy and pain it can bring.
Lotus Hannon began devising and performing new writing in North Tyneside Youth Theatre. Her first short film Man of Me Dreams, was selected and screened by The British Council and various international film festivals. Lotus went on to work as an Inserts Director and Assistant Director primarily in TV comedy, working for Jonathan Ross, Mark Lamarr, Jack Dee and Peter Kay. In 2008 Lotus won The Script Factory Development Scheme with her first original feature screenplay, Render. She was selected for the WFTV mentoring scheme 2014 and the Creative England SW Talent Module 2015. www.lotushannon.com
John Donne (1572-1631) was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England. A contemporary of Shakespeare, Donne is as famous for his religious writing as he is for his love and erotic poetry. He is considered to be the leading metaphysical poet and a master of the extended metaphor. His poetry was never published in his lifetime, only shared in manuscript form within a small circle. The popularity of Donne’s work was re-established in the 20th century thanks to prominent admirers T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats.
