Variant of Concern: University Theatre Pandemic Production through the Zoom Lens

This paper documents one instance of the theatre variant known as the Zoom play, which rose to prominence during the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zoom plays replaced in-person productions at many universities as theatre programs struggled to provide meaningful performance experiences for students who could no longer gather together. Moments of note from the University of Manitoba Theatre Program’s production of Zoom Lens by Debbie Patterson are explored for their insights into a culture, and a cultural practice, in flux. Patterson’s script goes right to the heart of the student pandemic experience. In the midst of a lockdown, eight university students have signed up for “Cultural Representations of Pandemics,” a brand-new course taught by a jittery first-time professor. Together but online, they struggle to navigate the relationships that the class builds, and to master a variety of cultural offerings influenced by disastrous epidemics. Along the way, art and life intertwine with surprising, and even life-threatening, results. The paper ends by asking if the Zoom play is in fact a variant of concern with a life beyond the pandemic pause, or simply an ineffectual mutation that will function like a relic in the museum of this time.