10 Ways to Survive Life in Quarantine

’10 Ways to Survive Life in Quarantine’ was an 85-minute play written by a young American playwright Don Zolidis, who is also a novelist and educator. This is his follow-up to ’10 Ways to Survive the end of the World’. With 20 novels and a 100 plays mainly for teenagers, he already has 7,500 productions under his belt and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

An intriguing preview trailer of the shorter version (35-minutes) was shown on Facebook by the Perth At Home Theatre Company. It showed their Digital One Act Play to be presented on the 10th May 2020 when the whole country was in lockdown and no theatres were open.

This play by Zolidis was first produced in America and presented online. It looked as though the American version was a normal theatre presentation with  full set and intermingling actors – but then again Quarantine over there seems to mean life goes on as normal. The Perth at Home  troupe however showed the immense difficulties faced with most scenes being monologues.

With the WA’s cast spread as far afield as Joondalup, Fremantle and Albany one can only wonder how they carried out their rehearsals, lit the sets, matched scenery and then managed to follow and meet the Director’s remote direction and ideas.

This One Act play was actually a series of cameos, sketches and monologues each carried out almost as one shot. A few cutaways, or a change of angles could have been made if the actors felt competent to do shorter sentences without spoiling the flow of the edited piece.

The performances were well thought out and smoothly delivered. Considering this was a new concept the result was much better than I expected. The youngsters especially were exceptional, capturing this type of remote production perfectly.

A most courageous idea and so many congratulations to all concerned.

The Host (Chris McRae) and his glamourous Co-host Tiffany (Rebecca McRae) introduced us to :-

Peter (Adam Giltrow)

Lou (Jenny Croston)

Elia (Michelle Ezzy)

Josie (Emily Schinkel)

Jolene (Daisy Churchman) and her assistant (Lily Churchman)

Pascal (Mike Moshos)

TJ (Jackson Lucas)

Marvin (Kailem Mollard)

Sahra (Luke Miller)

Reagan (Shelly Miller)

School teacher, Alison (Rachel Vonk)

Torrance (Kate Temme)

Nelma (Niamh O’Hehir)

Anna (Clare Simms)

Toby (Megan West)

Judy (Sophie David)

Rachel (Suzy-June Wakeling)

Andrew (Jack Churchman)

Jeff (Guy Jackson)

Uder (Bailey O’Hehir)

With lovable appearances from Abbey, Bounty, Bubble, Luna, Harry, and Daisy.