Stream: This is not Schiehallion

Shades of Tay - Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Having enjoyed her terrific production of ‘The Return’ when it toured up here in the Highlands, I was hoping for something more from this short-commissioned piece for Pitlochry Festival Theatre.  Filmed on phones in two different locations (presumably small flats) it is a conversation between two millennials undertaking a step challenge at home to raise money for charity. One is about to give up and slip into a lockdown torpor of booze and cannabis and his girlfriend is surging ahead in her neat gym wear full of enthusiasm. There are references to a lost loved one along the way and imagining the hills they were to have climbed.

It is difficult to understand the thinking behind this premise as hill walking is still allowed and encouraged. Perhaps this piece is set when the limit was just five miles. However, it came over as confusing and whiney. A couple of snowflakes doing ‘the right thing’. As an A level or Highers drama project this would have been fine, but unfortunately it didn’t  rise to the occasion in this context.  

Available for free on YouTube.