Writer’s block and things that rock!

This coming Monday theatres and cinemas will be allowed to open in Italy. How many will actually open is another story.

In any case, psychologically, it seems the pandemic is behind us as we are adapting to the new normal (I went twice to a restaurant this week).

The virus lurks somewhere, hidden in the shadows, everywhere you go.

But it in all fairness it has broken everyone’s balls to such an extent that the majority of us can’t be bothered by it.

A good friend of mine who lives in Sicily (I won’t tell you where for privacy reason) described apocalyptic scenes coming straight from Dante’s Inferno of masses of people gathering together at night in front of bars and cafés.

What can I say? Let’s cross our fingers.

Influenza recedes in the summer (not disappear but ‘recedes’, mark my word) I don’t see why this little bastard should behave any differently. Given that there are good chances that this **** (hangman.. I’ll give you a hint…. starts with ‘c’) may come back in autumn we might as well drink ourselves to oblivion.

In any case that’s not what I wanted to write about in this post.

What I wanted to write about is…

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO WRITE ABOUT?

I mean forget the old story of man meeting woman at a party, they fall in love and then have kids / get a divorce / he kills her (depending on your genre… romance, alimony tragedy or horror). THAT’S OLD.

ANYTHING HAS BECOME OLD IN A FLASH (except the classics I guess).

The question is, are we going to let Covid-19 sneak in our future stories or pretend it never existed?

I was presented with this dilemma twice in a row in these past days.

Firstly, I was contacted by a friend of mine who wanted me to give a look at the treatment of a film he wrote. As I laid down the question, “Are you going to acknowledge Covid in the story if this gets produced?” he replied “Hell no! Everyone wants to forget about it.

Secondly, yesterday I received a call by a venue manager who inquired about a silent comedy show I directed and wrote.

Hi Tom, I wanted to ask you a question about that show. I know you guys are 3 actors on the stage. Do you think you guys can fit the new guidelines for live performances? Actors need to maintain physical distancing on the stage as well, about a metre. We would like to book it for an open air performance in July.

Yes“, I said almost instinctively.

PAUSE.

Neurons exchanging chemical and electrical signals.

Fizz. Buzz. 

Now, that show (trailer below) is a silent comedy show about a nurse and two mentally ill patients in a psychiatric ward.

Crackling sound. Smoke coming out of my ears.

We’re going to acknowledge Covid in the story,” I told him “as simple as that.”

You see I don’t like patches. Patches are a waste of time.

A silent-comedy, clown show, about mental illness with Covid-19 in the background.

All right, I might as well book a flight to Sicily right away.

Leave a glass for me, buddy.