Loneliness, fear, bad dreams, repressed attraction or repugnance, lockdown and sudden escapes, jigsaw puzzles, food deliveries, bad tempers and penguins. These were the things that stole our sleep for a year, or that rescued, haunted and comforted us. In the early days of Covid lockdown in 2020, playwrights Vanessa Bates, Mary Rachel Brown, Suzie Miller, Lachlan Philpott and Katie Pollock came together in a virtual writing group to support each other and spur each other on. There were only two rules: deliver a piece every Monday inspired by events of the previous week; and show up online to read them out. Write down, show up, read out. A selection of these pieces have been gathered together in The Curve, a live performance, filmed and streamed by Critical Stages Touring. Like a modern-day journal of the plague year, this collection of monologues and scenes is a time capsule reflecting the lived experience of these five playwrights during the Covid-19 pandemic. With humour, drama, surprise and searing honesty, this collection is a deep interrogation of what it means to be alive during ‘extraordinary times’.