I’m in the paper today as part of The Age’s important series on ‘Artists in the Time of COVID19’. It gives voice to the challenged Arts sector and makes the experiences of artists accessible to the mainstream at a time when it feels like our role in the world has been forgotten.

So I got interviewed many weeks ago, just after scrambling back home from New Zealand. I spoke about the unexpected poignant timing of performing Happy-Go-Wrong which is about the great lessons sickness has taught me and the extraordinary resilience we don’t know we have in us til we’re put to the test. A show about how much you realise you have when everything is taken away from you and you have to start over. About how freakin’ amazing it is to simply be alive.

I spoke at length about how familiar this all already is to many in the chronic illness and disability community; about how I’ve learnt to find possibility in my years of restriction and how this now makes me oddly well-equipped for this pandemic.

I also spoke of the government’s neglect of the Arts industry in the various support packages put forth and how it is art we turn to at such times to save our sanity and show us the mirror of ourselves. I expressed (possibly naive) hope for a newfound appreciation of the Arts during this time, but also the fear that artists are so used to having to get by on their own, that this default robustness may sadly backfire and see us left, yet again, to fend for ourselves.

Of course, journos have certain agendas they need to honour, limited print spaces and the ever-increasing pressure for click-worthy grabs, so the article doesn’t quite capture it all as I experienced it, but it’s nonetheless great to see my work, indie theatre and Lyme disease get some coverage in these information-crowded times. (And hey, I’m next to John Gielgud, so no complaints from me, baby!)

Hope you enjoy the read! 🙌

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, CLICK HERE