Forest of the Lost was created by Open Sky Theatre, a company run by Artistic Director Claire Coaché and her husband, writer Lisle Turner, in remembrance of their baby sons.

In December 2012 Claire was pregnant with their second child when they discovered their baby had a genetic disorder and only had a 5% chance of surviving to term. If born alive he would require immediate surgery on his heart, brain, lungs and spine. This physical suffering was accompanied by an even smaller chance of survival. The couple agonised over their options but eventually took the heart-breaking decision to have a termination for medical reasons. After Claire took the medication and went through labour they were able to spend a few moments with their baby boy and named him Bodhi.

In January 2014 Claire was again pregnant with a baby boy when she suffered a miscarriage. The blood loss was so dramatic that she lost consciousness. With no time to wait for an ambulance, Lisle carried her to the car and drove her to hospital. Organ failure due to low blood pressure was avoided by a matter of minutes. The A&E team saved Claire’s life but sadly neither she nor Lisle had the chance to see the body of their baby boy, Brock. After these two experiences the couple decided to stop trying for a second child. Shocked by the discovery that 1 in 4 pregnancies do not go to term and the silence that surrounds this fact, they couple decided to try and translate their grief into an artistic endeavour.

They interviewed twelve women who had experienced loss and turned these and their own stories into a dark fairy tale about a pregnant couple lost and scared in a frozen forest. Those trees grew into the Forest of the Lost. Both film and website are things of beauty born of pain.

Find out more about Open Sky Theatre here or watch the film Cold here from the 12th January to the 6th February 2022.