by Nod At The Fox, part of Brighton Fringe 2021
Our narrator tells us, after a successful jamming session, a group of friends say their goodbyes at the train station. It could be Clapham junction, maybe Waterloo or somewhere else. As he leaves his friends he acknowledges a successful jam session of “improvised orchestra”. On leaving his friends he heads to his platform. To his horror, he hears “replacement bus service” over the intercom.
I immediately relate to the deflation the narrator feels at this point. Living in London I am all too familiar with this inconvenience. You think your journey will be 20 minutes or less and suddenly it turns into a meandering hour and a half journey that makes you wish you ordered an uber.
This play however is not about the inconvenience of “replacement bus service”, but more acts as a metaphor of Covid lockdown. All these plans, meetings with family, foreign holidays, everyday social life as we know it, was put on hold. Big life events like in my case include two of my sisters giving birth and I can’t go to meet them. Or not being able to go home to my parents at Christmas. For young people in their college years having to live them out on zoom calls. Or for the families that have lost loved ones and are unable to see them in their dying moments. Everyone has their own stories.
The narrator elaborates on this dystopia, Uncut hair, that feeling that we are here for life with no light at the end of the tunnel. We have a fear of missing out, feeling exiled. “Forced to spend our lives with random people, family losing each other one by one.” The world appears to be “evaporating”.
“Replacement Bus Service” or COVID was never part of the plan but it is the plan now and we just need to get through it.
This thoughtful and eloquent theatrical narrative, allows us to look back now, a year on, and ask ourselves, was it all bad or can it also be seen as an opportunity to reset our lives so “we can reclaim the power of our path..?”
Brighton Fringe 2021 runs from 28 May – 27 June.
