Colin
I wouldn’t like to be a teenager at the moment. It must be especially difficult in the current climate, because kids need time with their mates; time to mess around; time to do daft stuff; time to make mistakes. I don’t know how well I’d have coped with lockdown at that age. I’d have obeyed it because I was conscientious and my parents would have made sure that I stayed in, but I would have been sulky, ill-tempered and pretty miserable.
On 16 March 2020, one week before official government guidance, and just as Covid 19 was turning into a global epidemic, the Performance Ensemble went into lockdown. Our weekly company workshops came to an abrupt halt, and we disappeared behind our individual front doors. The easy ways of communicating, face to face, were no more. But we still needed to connect. Nine of the company started to keep diaries of their experiences, as a way of overcoming the isolation. Here they are: 31 days of lockdown, recorded during the months of March and April, beginning on 16 March and ending on 1 May, just as restrictions started to be eased. Edited by Barney Bardsley