Riz Ahmed’s celebrated digital performance ‘The Long Goodbye’ is now available to stream on demand, via the MIF website, for one month only. A companion piece to Ahmed’s critically acclaimed 2020 album of the same name, the 30-minute filmed performance weaves the album tracks into a powerfully immersive storytelling experience about identity and belonging. 

To mark the launch of the streaming period, Ahmed has shared a new trailer for the performance, giving a glimpse at the visual and emotional landscape of the show, and sharing audience reactions to the sold-out, one-night-only world premiere livestream that took place in December 2020.

‘The Long Goodbye’ follows the concept of Ahmed’s most recent album: a relationship break-up, not between two people, but with an entire country. This ‘allows [Ahmed] to transform the political into the personal’, as music website Pitchfork put it, reframing ‘the UK’s relationship with British Asians as a “toxic and abusive” love affair that has reached its breaking point in the wake of Brexit and the rise of the far-right.’ 

Reviewing the launch of ‘The Long Goodbye’ video-on-demand, the i newspaper said: ‘It’s unbelievably good, the most original and engaging live performance you will see during the pandemic. In fact you won’t have seen anything like this before Covid either.’ 

This 30-minute video-on-demand version of ‘The Long Goodbye’ is a digital edition of a full-length live stage performance, initially due to premiere in March 2020 but postponed by the coronavirus pandemic. A collaboration between MIF and Brooklyn Academy of Music, the live stage show will premiere in Manchester in the future. 

For more information and to purchase pay-as-you-feel tickets, visit The Long Goodbye booking page.