As lockdown struck in March 2020, Ben was half-way through his adaptation of Doppler, the celebrated novel by the Norwegian author Erlend Loe, about an affluent family man who has an accident on his bike and comes to realise his life is meaningless. He decides to live in the forest near Oslo, working with a barter economy and foraging for food. Slaughtering an elk for his meat supply, he is at first enraged and then delighted that the surviving elk calf, whom he names Bongo, adopts him a surrogate parent and together they form a strong bond. Their glorious isolation however, is soon encroached upon by unwanted visitors…
Grid Iron commenced rehearsals on Zoom in July 2000, proceeding to outdoor rehearsals with all Covid protocols in place, including 2 metre social distancing and spraying down of all props. At one point, it looked as though Doppler would be the only production of the cancelled 2020 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, however Covid restrictions were not lifted in time and so the decision was take to create a documentary about the making of Doppler, with scenes filmed in the Gifford Community Woodland in Gifford, East Lothian. The result is this documentary, Doppler: The Story So Far.
