1001 Stories
Back to All Stories

#78 Marcia Wright Joe Wicks

Photo of Marcia Wright

Marcia Wright

Today I followed the nation’s PE teacher, Joe Wicks, who has kindly devised a few exercise routines for seniors. The best thing is, they are only ten minutes long, so with a bit of that, and a bit of Chi Kung, I feel I’m really cooking with gas!

We observed the minute’s silence for all the front line workers who have died of the virus at 11 a.m. this morning. All my emotions seem heightened right now.

A Panorama programme has revealed that the government failed to stockpile PPE, or prepare adequately for the pandemic, and that they ignored the advice of scientists. It’s all very shocking.

Precis

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