Review: AN ISOLATED INCIDENT, Kenny Boyle (Online)
Having trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, talented actor and award-winning playwright Kenny Boyle makes an interesting and ethereal digital contribution to the online theatre scene with An Isolated Incident, a play filmed and presented in six episodes. Each one is performed by both new talent and established actors from the Scottish scene and have been released separately, free of charge, on Kenny Boyle’s Facebook page.
Supported financially by Creative Scotland, collaborating with Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline and providing contact details of The Scottish Association for Mental Health, Boyle’s well-written script is performed as six powerful monologues, with each interconnecting part focussing on the consequences of lockdown but also the importance of speaking out when needed, reaching out to others when dealing with burdens and destroying the stigma surrounding mental health and wellbeing.
Celebrating Scottish landscapes from the Borders to the Outer Hebrides through the four seasons, the six significative named short films - Time Traveller, Vampire, Cherubim, Werewolf, Atlas and Orpheus - bring, through Boyle’s poetic tone and mythical references, an accurate and dazzling light to daily lockdown moments with the social issues and changes it encounters. By exploring loneliness, depression and isolation, the repercussions of an unexpected loss, the delicate topic of domestic violence, the pressure we impose on ourselves, and finally sparkles of kindness and hope.
An Isolated Incident was entirely filmed on iPhone, edited on free software on home PCs, with performances captured remotely by actors Karen Bartke (Scot Squad), Natalie Clark (Lost At Christmas/Still Game), Gillian Massey (Fringe comedy Irrelevant), John Michael-Love (Outlander) and Kenny Boyle himself, hiding under blanket for audio quality. We can salute Boyle and his team’s work to overcome all of the technical obstacles to give the audience a beautifully moving experience and allow him to remind us “theatre cannot be stopped, it will always evolve and adapt”.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Alexia Irene
An Isolated Incident can be viewed for free here.