Remember when we used to go out to the theatre? Sit in the auditorium to a chorus of coughs as the lights went down, then queue at the bar for the entire interval only to hurriedly decant your beverage into a plastic cup before heading back for act two? Those were the days.
So many of us continue to pine after these evenings – and the theatres miss us, too. But as we wait to see what’s in store while our worlds begin to open up, theatre has been unable to sit around and wait to welcome us back. The show, as they say, must go on.
Distance Remaining has been written and produced to be viewed as a theatrical production on film. It’s also “touring” in Scotland, which means it’s available to view via different venues on different nights.
It’s a great way to support your local theatre while their doors remain closed and will be shown via Dundee Rep Theatre, The Byre in St Andrews and Perth Theatre along with other venues over the coming weeks.
Distance Remaining promises three escape attempts. Each segment standing alone, the characters offering a short glimpse into their lives, set against the backdrop of Scottish lockdown in spring 2020.
While these one-person scripts could easily be recreated on stage, a variety of camera angles and the ability to shoot some scenes in the great outdoors adds a new dimension. Yet director Caitlin Skinner (recently announced as the new artistic director of Stellar Quines) is still able to remind us this is a theatrical world where actors are housed in stage sets.
Theatre for now
Written by Stewart Melton, who grew up in Aberdeen, Distance Remaining distils many familiar aspects of this last year into just over an hour’s viewing.
Although we’ve only come to know these Covid references in the very recent past, they seem so normal. This is theatre for now, but also the uncertain future we look towards.
Viewers will invariably resonate with at least one character. For a start, dogs feature in every tale – even if we don’t see all of them on camera.
Dolina MacLennan delivers a powerful monologue as pensioner Jess who toils on the floor of her living room after a nasty fall. In her lilting Doric she recollects familial struggles, and it’s obvious she’s made of sterner stuff.
Someone close to her is about to get a taste of freedom but she has a battle to fight if she is going to make it through the day.
In the second segment, Karen Dunbar plays volunteer driver Lindsey, buzzing round Montrose helping people who are shielding.
Dunbar is perfect for this character, who is at once funny and tragic. The laughs come easily while she’s taking selfies with a packet of Viennese whirls for her social media feed – #doingmybit – or fighting off Oreo the dog.
But she’s in turmoil, hovering in the limbo of furlough. She needs to keep moving or the world will stop. It’s clear Lindsey is craving connection and, while we can giggle at her misfortunes, does she have somewhere to turn while she’s “taking risks so you don’t have to”?
Siri – the voice control on her phone – is still her pal, but even she can hilariously overstep the mark at times.
In the final part, young Cam, played by Reuben Joseph, punctuates his inner thoughts with frantic calls to his lost pooch.
Aimlessly wandering on a deserted beach, he recalls a time when he lived somewhere more exciting, “before the world got sick”. His family seem to be constantly on the move and he needs that same world to stop turning for a little while, just to catch up.
Cam is the sum of what everyone else has told him: “I’ve never failed at failure,” he says, but no character’s story is over yet.
While Distance Remaining doesn’t set out to answer every question it poses, it demonstrates hopelessness can always cave to possibility. Let’s hope it does.
Dates: Dundee Rep Theatre, April 20; The Byre Theatre, April 23-24; Perth Theatre, May 8.
