Conceived, written and acted by Timothy Quinlan, this short film features some of the better acting on offer at the Fringe, and like so many others, is inspired by the strange realities of 2020.
Five stories, five men, five different lockdowns… it really is that simple.
We see five stories unfold, hinting at the depths of five different lockdowns which all nudge each other, and get to know something of the five men at their hearts … a politician type; a work-from-home Dad having an online affair; an out-of-work actor; a guy with ex-wife issues; a pipe-smoking, violin-playing sage.
Five Lock Down features plenty of familiar Covid tropes: learning the ukulele, a moral compulsion to watch an online show, reflection, introspection, the refusal to take a nagging cough seriously… and perhaps the most touching element is the way in which – at a time so consumed with death – another seems to register little other than in the formulaic platitudes we can offer to the airwaves.
Five stories, five men, five different lockdowns… it really is that simple. There is a confidence in the way in which Quinlan drills down into the recognisable and refuses to indulge the potential for excess; and although there is significant scope for him to differentiate rather more between his characters, it’s insistence on underplaying is perhaps part of its charm.
