Humanity At the End of The World: Love
Love at the End of the World is a piece written and performed by Ife Grillo, exploring the way our relationship to love and dating has been shaped by covid. In it, you see Ife discuss how and why relationships that started during covid, co-dependency and what it means to love someone during scary times. It is part of a series of films called ‘Humanity at the End of the World’ that explores the ways in which the pandemic has changed what it means to be human.
“I’ve always loved love and believed in its magic”.
I’ve always loved love and believed in its magic. For me, love is one of the most important and beautiful forces that govern our universe. I wrote Love at the End of the World because I wanted to explore how Covid has shaped who we are as lovers. I’ve spent the pandemic single and navigating my dating and love life while the world feels irredeemable has been both depressing and illuminating. Whether you’re in a relationship or not, I think Covid has played a huge role in how we see ourselves as lovers.
Seeing so many of my friends get into relationships quicker than they ever had before reminded me that part of the reason we want someone to love is for the bad times and not just the good. It’s not that we’re desperate for relationships but having romantic companionship during a scary time can be incredibly helpful. I’ve never seen many of my single friends be so discontented with not having a partner.
“Covid took away a lot of the fun parts of being single”.
Covid took away a lot of the fun parts of being single and it forced a lot of us to re-evaluate our love-lives and whether we were happy with where we are. Do I think that many people rushed into relationships they shouldn’t have been in because of Covid? Of course! However, I wanted to write a piece about why that happens instead of shaming people for feeling like that.
Admitting you want romantic love can be incredibly scary, especially when we often feel like in modern society, we’re not meant to admit that. To even dare and say you don’t enjoy being single is often met with ‘But you can’t be happy with someone else unless you’re happy with yourself’ instead of ‘it’s really valid for you to feel like that because romantic relationships govern a significant part of most people’s life’.
“I wanted to write a piece that looked love in the eye and is honest about how many of us have been feeling.”
I wanted to write a piece that looked love in the eye and is honest about how many of us have been feeling.
Has the pandemic changed the way you interact with people? Let us know on our socials and check out the rest of the pieces in this series.
Film written and performed by Ife Grillo, filmed by Bex Rose, executive produced by Lucy Turner and Ife Grillo.