National Theatre Of Scotland Announces New Scenes For Survival Films, First BBC Scotland Broadcasts and iPlayer Releases
By: Stephi Wild Jul. 30, 2020
Scenes for Survival, the ongoing digital project created by The National Theatre of Scotland, continues to entertain audiences with new weekly releases across BBC and National Theatre of Scotland online platforms.
The project is being delivered by The National Theatre of Scotland 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, and sees a host of Scottish performers, writers, and directors creating short pieces of digital theatre remotely from their personal spaces of isolation, with films released online for audiences to enjoy for free.
The latest Scenes for Survival releases for the week of 03 August will include the first part of Out of the Woods, a hilarious and sinister new three-episode short starring Alan Cumming. Written by Johnny McKnight and directed by Andrew Panton, Out of the Woods stars Cumming as a father struggling to find his way through the woods on the way to pick up his daughter from her other dad, before his real intentions slowly become clear.
The short series was filmed entirely by Cumming in woodland near his home in the Catskills mountain range in New York State. The first episode will be released online at 9pm on Mon 03 August, while the following two episodes will be released on Mon 10 and Mon 17 August respectively. Out of the Woods is produced in association with Dundee Rep Theatre.
The other two Scenes for Survival releases for the week will include Alone Part 2 on Wed 05 Aug, a warm-hearted follow up to comedian Janey Godley's original Scenes for Survival film Alone, and Dirlo - Am Fear Maireann / Dirlo - The Survivor on 07 Aug, a new Gaelic-language short from writer Iain Macrae.
Alone Part 2 reunites Godley and director Caitlin Skinner, and once again stars Godley as long-suffering housewife Betty, now freed from the influence of her controlling husband and able to reach out to her son Stephen, played by Jack Lowden, as the two are finally able to plan their futures. The piece was created following the overwhelming positive response to the first film, and has been partly inspired by audience feedback asking for a follow-up to Betty's story.
Dirlo - Am Fear Maireann / Dirlo - The Survivor is a new short from writer Iain Macrae, directed by Liz Caruthers, and starring Daibhidh Walker as an isolated shepherd working on a remote Hebridean island who comes into conflict with his only companion. It is the first Scenes for Survival film performed entirely in Gaelic, and is produced in association with Theatre Gu Leòr.
BBC iPlayer releases and BBC Scotland broadcasts
Out of the Woods will also be one of the first Scenes for Survival shorts made available to audiences through the BBC iPlayer in August. The first episode will appear on the platform from 03 August alongside a selection of other pieces from the project, including exclusive Ian Rankin short Rebus: The Lockdown Blues, starring Brian Cox as the legendary Edinburgh cop; Janey Godley's darkly-comic lockdown short Alone; and Joseph Knight, an extract from May Sumbwanyambe's forthcoming play Enough of Him starring Patrick Martins and Emma King, based on the true story of Joseph Knight, an African man brought to Scotland as a slave in the 18th century who eventually sued for his freedom.
Other pieces appearing on the iPlayer later in August will include A Mug's Game, a sobering reflection on the legacy of asbestos poisoning in the Glasgow shipyards featuring Jonathan Watson, taken from Frances Poet's play Fibres; The Banshee, a haunting comedy short from writer/director Greg Hemphill performed by Julie Wilson Nimmo; and The Domestic, a powerful tribute to the kindness of hospital staff starring Kristi MacDonald and written by Uma Nada Rajah, who has herself been working as an NHS staff nurse during the outbreak.
Further selections of Scenes for Survival shorts will be made available on the iPlayer every week through August, with 25 in total appearing on the service. Full details will be announced at a later date.
Next month will also see a selection of Scenes for Survival releases broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel for the first time, with three standalone Scenes for Survival films set to be screened on the channel in the coming weeks:
Larchview, written by Rob Drummond and featuring Mark Bonnar as a fictional government adviser coming to terms with his own major breach of the lockdown rules when he secretly visited a care home; Fatbaws, written by Douglas Maxwell, and starring Peter Mullan in a surreal and comic drama about a man in conflict with his garden birds after he changes the food in their bird-feeder; and First Things, written by Val McDermid and starring Elaine C. Smith as a big-hearted DJ on Radio Scotia trying to keep everyone's spirits up during lockdown.
A three-part compilation of selected films from the project will also be broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel in August. Full details for these broadcasts will be announced.
Information on all Scenes for Survival films can be found at
The Longest Summer- single release
Written by Noisemaker (Scott Gilmour & Claire McKenzie) and directed by Jemima Levick, The Longest Summer sees Richard Rankin star in a lyrical, life-affirming musical journey through childhood and hardship during the current crisis, celebrating the beautiful things that the world still has to offer.
The film was first released online on Monday 27 July. Now the uplifting central song in the short film, sung by Rankin, is to be released as a standalone single. The track will be available through all major digital music distribution outlets from Tuesday 04 August.
All proceeds from the single will be donated to the Scenes for Survival Hardship Fund, which has been set up to support artists and those in the theatre industry who have been hardest hit financially by the current crisis.
Richard Rankin said:
"It's been a privilege to work on The Longest Summer as part of Scenes for Survival with the wonderful creative team of Noisemaker and director Jemima Levick, and I'm thrilled that the film and song have resonated with so many people already. The song release is a brilliant way to continue that connection, and a great opportunity to raise some cash for a vitally important cause."
The Scenes for Survival Hardship Fund is a fundraising campaign launched by The National Theatre of Scotland in association with the Federation of Scottish Theatre, the McGlashan Charitable Trust and leading Scottish Theatre organisations, to raise money for those in the sector who have been hardest hit financially and are experiencing drastic economic and emotional hardship.
All donations to this fund will go directly to provide support for those most impacted within Scotland, be they actors, writers, creatives, musicians, technicians or any others within our industry.
A sector-wide call out with information and details of how to apply for support from the SFS Hardship Fund will be launched in August 2020. The Federation of Scottish Theatre and the McGlashan Charitable Trust will ensure equitable distribution of the money raised.
About Scenes for Survival
Created in response to the current COVID-19 outbreak, Scenes for Survival is an inventive digital project created by some of Scotland's leading theatrical talent. More than 50 short pieces of digital theatre are being created by a host of leading performers, writers, directors, and other creatives working remotely from their personal spaces of isolation.
The project is being delivered by The National Theatre of Scotland 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 and sees a host of Scottish performers, writers, and directors creating short pieces of digital theatre remotely from their personal spaces of isolation.
The first Scenes for Survival shorts were released on 27 May 2020, in a launch night featuring six films. Subsequent films are being released three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and will go live at 9pm.
New Scenes are initially published by the BBC's online channels and distributed by The National Theatre of Scotland and partners' via their social media channels. All Scenes for Survival content is entirely free for audiences. To date, the series has garnered over 8.5million views across online platforms.
The programme is serving as an inventive alternative online season of short works, following the enforced cancellation of productions and performances from The National Theatre of Scotland, as well as by venues and theatre companies across Scotland.
As well as serving as a conduit for continuing to offer paid opportunities to artists and performers during an unprecedented crisis, Scenes for Survival draws attention to the enduring and urgent role of storytelling in the current crisis and explore themes of hope, solidarity, community, escape, fear, imagination and humour.
All content will remain online for two years and a selection of films will be shown at a later date on BBC Scotland, BBC4 and BBC Alba in the coming months.
The season of works is also acting as a platform to raise money for a new hardship fund for artists and those in the theatre industry who have been hardest hit financially by the current crisis.
Some artists involved have offered to donate their artistic fee on a pay-it-forward basis to enable further artists to be involved and paid over the coming months. The Company gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the artists who are supporting the project so far.
Scottish theatre organisations supporting the project include: Aberdeen Performing Arts, The Gaity, Birds of Paradise, the Beacon Arts Centre, the Byre Theatre, Citizens Theatre, Curious Seed, Dundee Rep Theatre, Eden Court Highlands, Imaginate, Macrobert Arts Centre, Perth Theatre, Playwrights Studio, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, Shetland Arts, Solar Bear, Summerhall, Stellar Quines, Theatre Gu Leor, the Tron Theatre and the Traverse Theatre.
Artists involved to date include:
Performers: Moyo Akandé, Jasmin Ewing-Asname, Maureen Beattie, Cora Bissett, Mark Bonnar, Tam Dean Burn, Neshla Caplan, Morven Christie, Amy Conachan, Nicole Cooper, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Kate Dickie, Blythe Duff, Brian Duffy, Liz Ewing, Gilly Gilchrist, Julie Graham, Douglas Henshall, Dani Heron, Gordon Houston, Katherine Howden, Barrie Hunter, Emma King, Sanjeev Kholi, Natalie MacDonald, Patrick Martins, James McArdle, Kristi McDonald, Lorraine Mcintosh, Natalie Moore Williams, Ashleigh More, Julie Wilson Nimmo, Richard Rankin, Annie Louise Ross, Elaine C Smith, David Walker, Jonathan Watson, and Natalie Moore Williams.
Writers: Finn Anderson, Peter Arnott, Apphia Campbell, Rob Drummond, Philippe Ducros, Andy Edwards, Oliver Emanuel, Stewart Ennis, Jenni Fagan, Janice Galloway, Kevin Gilday, Catherine Grosvenor, Nelly Kelly, Aine King, Hannah Lavery, Ian Low, Iain Finlay Macleod, Iain Macrae, Douglas Maxwell, Nicola McCartney, Liam McCormick, Val McDermid, Andy McGregor, Kathy McKean, Alan McKendrick, Johnny McKnight, Linda McLean, Denise Mina, Rona Munro, Noisemaker (Scott Gilmour & Claire McKenzie), Michael John O'Neill, Morna Pearson, Frances Poet, Lynda Radley, Uma Nada-Rajah, Ian Rankin, Corinne Salisbury, Stef Smith, Tena Štivičić, May Sumbwanyambe, Luke Sutherland, Meghan Tyler, and Irvine Welsh
Writer-performers: Richard Conlon, Janey Godley, Liz Lochhead, and Gail Watson.
Director/performers: Peter Mullan.
Writer/Director/Performer: Greg McHugh
Directors: Davey Anderson, Andy Arnold (Artistic Director of the Tron Theatre), Justin Audibert, Cora Bissett, Jordan Blackwood, Nick Bone, Liz Carruthers, Christine Devaney and Tam Dean Burn, Graham Eatough, Julie Ellen (Artistic Director of Macrobert Arts Centre), Morag Fullarton, Leonie Rae Gasson, Nic Green, Debbie Hannan, Ben Harrison, Finn Den Hertog, Dominic Hill (Artistic Director of the Citizens Theatre), Shilpa T-Hyland, Natalie Ibu, Emily Ingram, Niloo-Far Khan, Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, Muireann Kelly (Artistic Director of Theatre Gu Leòr), Maggie Kinloch, Jemima Levick (Artistic Director of Stellar Quines Theatre Company), Amy Liptrott (Associate Director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Fiona MacKinnon, Morag MacKinnon, Sarah McCardie, Peter McMaster, Beth Morton, Cameron Mowat, Katherine Nesbitt, Eve Nicol, Orla O'Loughlin, Andrew Panton (Artistic Director of Dundee Rep Theatre), Sally Reid, Stasi Schaeffer, Louise Shephard, Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir and Caitlin Skinner.
Writer/directors: Zinnie Harris, Greg Hemphill, Robert Softley Gale (Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise), David Greig, Anthony Neilson, and Gerda Stevenson.
Additional creatives: Lewis den Hertog, Dougal Gudim, Simon Lidell, Rob MacNeacail, Kim Moore, Pippa Murphy, Shereen Nanjiani, Elizabeth Newman (Artistic Director of Pitlochry Theatre) and Luke Sutherland
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