A NEW south-west based company makes its debut in June with a magic realist play about the days of COVID. Dot Dot Dot Theatre has chosen Sally Whyte’s play Dot, the Faun and the Elfin Child for its first tour, starting on 5th June at the Rondo Theatre in Bath.

It is set in the summer of the pandemic and Dot’s teenage daughter is driving her mother bananas, all at the same time as she tries to deal with the challenges of home education and her own midlife “What’s-become-of-me?” crisis.

Of course her precocious elfin daughter has her own issues – getting through her studies without her beloved father at home, while trying to sort out her own ideas of “Who will I become?”

Enter one very mischievous Faun, hotfoot from France, and it looks like he’s going to provide some welcome relief for both of them, as he injects fun and music and mayhem into their garden, relieving the tension and terminal boredom they both have to suffer.

Now play is one thing of course … but it can very quickly get out of hand. Ask any actor!! Especially if you have a suggestible imagination. What will happen when Monsieur Faun changes his tune and they each want a piece of him?

The play is directed by writer June Trask and the cast is Stephanie Weston as Dot, Ellen Schofield as the Elfin Child, Ellis J Wells as the Faun and Georgie Dixon as Agatha.

Playful, comedic, physical, intelligent, poignant and theatrical, this is a new play well worth the watching. It is thought-provoking and offers an antidote to the diet of adaptation and musicalisation that is washing through so many theatres in the mid 2020s.

After its premiere at The Rondo, Dot, the Faun and the Elfin Child can be seen at Wells Theatre Festival on 20th and 22nd June, Barnstaple Theatrefest Fringe from 28th to 30th June and Bristol’s Alma Tavern on 22nd and 23rd July. New dates will be added to the schedule, so follow on www.dotdotdot-theatre.co.uk