The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Free festival from Rep is a gift to city
Theatres only exist through the relationship with their audience. Staying connected with the people who turn up in every weather to fill the seats and support productions has been key to planning successful reopenings, whenever those might be.
When lockdown began, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre reached out with “Where Are You Dundee?”, a way to keep in touch with the audience through creative projects.
“As a follow-up we put out a call for works that were specifically for the people of Dundee,” says Andrew Panton, artistic director at Dundee Rep.
The result is This is for you Dundee, a free online festival of events, celebrating the city of Dundee and running from May 14 to 23.
The events are all free but will be ticketed, with booking now available on the Rep’s website.
“They were initially going to be outside pop-up events,” says Andrew, “but when we realised that this couldn’t happen safely within public health parameters, we changed the project.”
Andrew says that the six companies have managed to keep the core of their ideas, while moving them into digital productions – and have also managed to retain the original interactivity.
In Saturday’s Doon The JM Fearless Players, working with Alzheimer Scotland, has created a short musical film based on the real-life stories of people living with dementia in Dundee.
The stories are told through Andy (Barrie Hunter) and Eleanor’s (Ann Louise Ross) 40-year marriage.
They met, of course, at the JM ballroom.
Mother Earth is the work of street dance collective Three60.
It’s a story of nature and the powerful contribution that women make to humankind. Follow a goddess as she transforms through her phases on Earth.
For Dundee Qr-kun, dance artist Yosuke Kusano has placed QR codes on different spots across Dundee, transporting you to digital dance pieces.
Visit them all throughout the week and tune in to watch a documentary about the making of the project from the comfort of home.
In Taking Space, hidden route theatre company and Hayley Blakeman present an audio play inspired by a 2020 study, which found Dundee to be the worst place in Scotland to grow up as a girl.
Taking Space is a project that asks why this might be and dreams that one day the opposite might be true.
Andrew Panton adds that, “it wasn’t just about picking the best ideas, it was the ideas that connect and really relate to Dundee – that have a real resonance with the city”.
The year, he says, has been not only about keeping in touch with the immediate community, but also creating other communities online, something that has lead to the creation of the Rep Studios digital platform.
He stresses that opening up has to be done with caution.
He said: “As much as I would love to open our doors tomorrow, I don’t want to open if it’s not right or if we’re going to contribute to a situation that means we have to play an even longer game.
“Let’s be patient and open when we can – then we will really do that with a bang.”