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13 July 2020

Scenes for Survival launched

27 May 2020

Scenes for Survival is a new season of digital short artworks, created in association with BBC Scotland, Screen Scotland, BBC Arts' Culture in Quarantine project and Scotland's leading theatre venues and companies, with support from Hopscotch Films.

Each artwork has been exceptionally created by a quarantine creative team, connecting remotely, made up of a performer(s), writer and director and filmed by the performers, from their personal spaces of isolation. Over 100 leading artists and creatives have collaborated to create and release more than forty unique films over the coming weeks and months.

All Scenes for Survival content is free to audiences and will be made available on the National Theatre of Scotland website.

The launch collection released on 27 May 2020 is made up of six works:

  • Isolation. A new short piece from novelist Jenni Fagan, performed by Kate Dickie, and directed by Debbie Hannan.
  • A Mug's Game. An extract from the play Fibres by Frances Poet, performed by original star Jonathan Watson and directed by Louise Shephard.
  • Clearing. A new short piece from writer Morna Pearson, performed by Ashleigh More and directed by Cameron Mowat.
  • Alone. Written and performed by Janey Godley, directed by Caitlin Skinner.
  • The Present. Written by Stef Smith, starring Moyo Akandé and directed by Katherine Nesbitt.
  • John Rebus: The Lockdown Rules. An exclusive new Rebus short from Ian Rankin, starring Brian Cox as the irascible detective inspector and directed by Cora Bissett.

 There's a review by Mark Fisher in The Guardian of 27 May 2020.

The season of works also act as a platform to raise money for the new  Scenes For Survival Hardship Fund: a fund for artists and theatre workers who have been hardest hit financially by the current crisis.