The Socially Distanced Play

How many theatre companies have their own resident playwright? The Socially Distanced Play had its genesis at the beginning of the infamous COVID outbreak when Damon Hill decided to write a play based on the premise of a local theatre company trying to rehearse a play with social distancing and all the other precautions that accompany COVID.

The Socially Distanced Play takes us through a rehearsal of a traditional British farce while sticking to the rules of social distancing at the same time. It is not necessary to divulge the plot of this rehearsed play - it contains elements of every funny farce you have ever seen.

What makes the play so funny are the lengths the cast go to stay safe. It would be easy to say that this production is just another ‘take’ on COVID and perhaps we are all tired of that topic. However, it’s not. This play comes just at the right time. Now that restrictions are lifting, we can see the funny side of the precautions we so rightly took to stay safe.

Hill is to be commended for not only writing a funny farce script, directing and designing, but also for adding so many extras to the plot; the COVID antics and the things that happen while rehearsing a play.

Audience members who have been involved in community theatre will understand the ‘other’ layer of the script; cast members not knowing or having the rehearsal schedule, compensating for missing pieces of the set, missing sound effects, mobile phone distractions and many more. Hill must have been taking notes during rehearsals of many plays to gather so much material!

Then there are the ‘COVID antics’; cleaning doorknobs and phones each time they are used, using fake hands to touch another actor, not touching glasses, eating safely, fight scenes without touching, a shortage of toilet paper, reactions to coughs and, of course, masks.

A clever feature of the play is the pre-recorded video before the curtain goes up explaining the premise of the play and a time lapse sequence of the previous set being pulled down and the new one being built.

A Socially Distanced Play features a star-studded cast of Tea Tree Players’ favourites with a new face added, all well worth mentioning. Tina Hall’s Hortense Fingelnacker is a ‘method’ actor who delves into complexities of the play that just aren’t there; Chris Galipo’s Carmel Walters is a flustered wife trying to have an illicit affair;  Rhi Shapcott’s Felicity Gosseter is a germaphobe who insists on a mask with gifs to show her emotions and upstaging roaming eyebrows; Kieran Drost’s Marcus Balcock is her boyfriend, who has a broom stuck down his pants to simulate a plaster cast; Kristyn Barnes’ Amanda Tottenfrot is a local prostitute who is more interested in social media than the play; Lachlan Blackwell’s Daniel Garret is a lascivious Frenchman whose accent covers all of Europe and Asia; Frank Cwiertniak’s Burkhardt Ebermann is the husband having a mid-life crisis and trying cross dressing while insisting on the safe number of actors on stage at any time; Tim Cousins’ Clive Pinkerton is the  frustrated director that just wants to run a rehearsal; Kyle McCarthy’s Lionel Bascomb is a budding artist with a penchant for scantily clad women; Theresa (Lilly) Dolman’s Delia Frockman is the fastidious props person disinfecting everything in sight “Just to be on the safe side!” and Damon Hill replaces Sean Venning (who actually has COVID) as Bartholomew Davies, the ‘guy stuck in the middle of the chaos’.

Special mention should be made of the props (supplied by Beth Venning) that had to fit the unusual demands of being COVID safe.

If the opening night reaction to A Socially Distanced Play is anything to go by, then Tea Tree Players are in for a fantastic season with a production that delights on so many levels!

(PS. I loved the actor’s bios in the program, be sure to read them!)

Barry Hill