Going The Distance: New digital comedy play streaming this October
A new comedy play is streaming throughout October.
Going The Distance has been written by Henry Filloux-Bennett and Yasmeen Khan and will be directed by Felicity Montagu.
A co-production from the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, The Dukes and The Watermill Theatre, the piece will be available this autumn on demand from 4 – 31 October.
A teaser of the play shares: “When there’s no light at the end of the tunnel and the chips are down, you can count on Eggborough Community Theatre to fight back…
“March 2020. Theatres across the country go dark. Hundreds of cherished arts centres face the prospect of permanent closure. But that isn’t going to stop the Eggborough Community Theatre… as they fight to save their local venue with the genius idea to put on a fundraising production of Wizard* (*inspired by but for rights purposes certainly not based on The Wizard of Oz).
“Get ready for a brand new comedy about a little theatre with a huge challenge.”
The cast will feature Sara Crowe as ‘Em, Nicole Evans as ‘Billie’, Shobna Gulati as ‘Vic’, Sarah Hadland as ‘Rae’, Merch Husey as ‘Kem, Matthew Kelly as ‘Frank’, Emma McDonald as ‘Gail’, and Penny Ryder as ‘Maggie’ with Stephen Fry as the ‘Narrator’.
The launch of Going The Distance comes hot on the heels of the huge success of other critically acclaimed digital productions adapted by Filloux-Bennett, including What A Carve Up! in October 2020, The Picture of Dorian Gray in March 2021, and most recently Yasmeen Khan’s adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest, produced by The Lawrence Batley Theatre and The Dukes Lancaster.
Henry Filloux-Bennett said: “I’m so excited to be working with Yasmeen and Felicity on something which feels like a perfect way to celebrate the resilience of our incredible industry over the last year.
“Theatres and arts centres are absolutely at the heart of communities up and down the country, and ‘Going the Distance’ will I hope be a warm-hearted reflection of just how vital they are to us all. Think ‘Noises Off’ meets ‘Nighty-Night’ – at least then you know what we were aiming for…!”
Felicity Montagu added: “I’m very excited to be working on ‘Go The Distance’ in my directorial debut. Not only is this a thrilling challenge but working with Yasmeen Khan and Henry Filloux-Bennett, who are creating this wonderful Comedy-Drama, is a pure delight. If anything can bring joy and a beacon of hope out of such a terrible year, hopefully this will.”
Tickets are on sale now at goingthedistanceplay.com. Bookers will receive a screening link which will allow access for their booked performance date for a 48-hour period. Tickets are priced at £15 which will include both a link to the production as well as a digital programme. Audio description and closed captioning will be made available for the production during its run.
