Please take your seats

Last month the community theatre group with which I am involved felt compelled to cancel the final two performances of its annual one-act play festival due to rapidly mounting concerns about social distancing.

No surprise that a decision was subsequently taken to pull the plug on the play I was about to start directing which was scheduled to be performed at the end of May. Sad on many fronts, not least because I’d just cast four wonderful actors for the show. Fortunately all’s well that will end well, as we’re going to be doing it next May instead and all four actors are still keen to be involved.

Since the world went into lockdown a number of Facebook groups have started up on the island. There’s an art pandemic group in which the island’s many artists are sharing images of their work, past and present. There’s an open mic group for the many musicians on the island to share their songs.

Last week I suggested to another local playwright that we could (with the help of a tech savvy friend) do our lockdown bit by offering up for online viewing two one-act plays that we’d written and performed in 2017. She thought this was a hell of an idea and the board agreed. Yesterday her play went online. In a couple of days my play, An Unhelpful Complication, will also be available for viewing.

As you may (or may not) recall, An Unhelpful Complication was a finalist in the 2018 Canadian National Playwriting competition.

And here it is. Warning: Make sure you unmute your computer before you start watching, as the play begins with a phone call in the dark.

Enjoy!