After an 18-month closure, staff and artists at Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre are raring to welcome audiences back on September 7 2021.
Dundee Rep artistic director Andrew Panton is thrilled to be inviting audiences back after a long and difficult lockdown period.
“This is a day that we’ve all been waiting for, at Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre, for quite some time,” he says.
“The idea that we can open up safely, at a point where we know we can really look after our audiences and properly welcome them back, is just a really joyous thought.
“We can’t wait to get that revolving door spinning again.”
And the beloved city centre venue is coming back with a soaring start, with the world premiere of brand new John McCann play, Wings Around Dundee.
Waiting in the Wings
Written during lockdown and focusing on community, it follows two Dundee teenagers are on a quest to uncover family secrets hidden for too long.
With the help of a couple of massive talking seagulls, a TV quizmaster, the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the legend of the Tay Whale, they manage to shed some light and heal the past.
“As that play came about, and I asked Finn den Hertog to direct it, we just knew it was the one to start the season with,” explains Andrew.
“Because it’s a piece about emergence, about transformation. And it’s a piece that’s set in Dundee!
“It’s not about pandemics, it’s not about Covid, it just happens to have been set in the summer of last year. So it doesn’t really talk about the crisis, but we were all living through it.
“I’m really excited about it!”
What can audiences expect?
Although restrictions are lifting, the Rep team is determined to make sure audience members feel safe and have time to adjust to live performances again after a year of primarily digital content.
Rather than “back to normal”, Andrew says the theatre is “back to a new normal”.
“The new bit,” he says, “is that as you come into the Rep, you’ll have your temperature taken.
“We’ll have the usual kind of measures in place to help audiences stay safe, in terms of distancing and masks.”
He also explains that the theatre will initially operate on a reduced capacity as standard for performances, to allow people to distance comfortably.
“But also,” he adds, “within our first show, Wings Around Dundee, there are options for people to come to certain full-capacity performances.
“Moving forward, we’ll start to increase the number of performances at full capacity, but there will always be an option for people to come to a socially-distanced performance.
“We’re trying to find ways to cater for different people’s sense of the experience they want to have.”
Ready for anything
Although the team at the Rep are feeling optimistic about opening up their doors again, Andrew assures me they are prepared for the eventuality of another lockdown.
“If we’ve learned anything, it’s to prepare for the unexpected, and try to imagine all the things you never thought could happen,” he says.
“We’re continuing with our digital work, so we will always have digital offerings through Rep Studios that go alongside and in-person work.
“And if we do have to close the Rep, we’ll have digital options for our shows that people can watch at home.”
Drawing attention to the theatre’s community initiatives, he continues: “A lot of that work, especially the work of our dramatherapy offering, that can’t stop. On a daily basis, our drama therapists are dealing with vulnerable young people and adults. We can’t just stop that because we’ve had to close.
“So I think just lots of talking about it and lots of reinvention – trying to use the skills and knowledge we have, but using it in different ways.”
Looking out for artists
But as well as for consumers who have been starved of live entertainment, the pandemic has impacted massively on performers and those who make their living in the arts. And without performers, there is no theatre.
So how will the Rep help them get back to stability?
“We’re really looking at how we comprehensively cover our artists,” says Andrew.
“So for example, if someone was to fall ill, or to have to isolate, we’re going to have measures in place where we can cover their work and hopefully keep shows afloat.”
A packed programme
As well as continuing the work of the Rep Studios digital programme, the theatre has a variety of shows and dance pieces lined up all the way to Christmas.
These include the return of Scottish Dance Theatre’s acclaimed, Atigone, Interrupted, an NTS production of The Enemy, and a Dundee Rep and Noisemakers retelling of A Christmas Carol, just in time for the festive season.
Wings Around Dundee will premiere on September 7, and run until September 25.
For more information about upcoming shows and tickets, visit the Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre website.