Charis McRoberts - The Year of Black Summer

“'Tis the times’ plague when madmen lead the blind.”

King Lear, Act 4 Scene 1

2020. The year of Black Summer, the Australian Bushfires which burned through an estimated forty-six million acres. The year of global recession as our very own plague changed the world as we know it, sickening millions and destroying livelihoods. Society became “cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears,” (Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4) to unite in the fight to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

It was also a year of retaliation, the Black Lives Matter Movement held demonstrations across the planet to demand an end to police brutality and racial injustice. And we caught a glimpse of a cleaner world, showing us what was in reach with ambitious, decisive action towards the climate crisis.

We lost many, our loved ones, friends and family as well as the great Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a trailblazer for gender equality, Shakespearean powerhouse, actress Diana Rigg, and our “Black Panther,” the extremely talented Chadwick Boseman.

"...there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."

Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2

Hamlet’s words perfectly describe my experience of 2020. As a self-employed artist, like many others my work was cancelled and new work opportunities completely dried up. I had hours to think, to ponder, to worry about everything - health, work, bills, this ‘new normal’ of life indoors. How quickly all our lives changed from 2019 to 2020.

But how do we express this unique experience in our art? Process and comment on this year of Black Summer, of death and loss, of protest and promise? How do we honour the people lost? I believe we can make a start through Shakespeare’s words. He wrote through both the 1592 outbreak of bubonic plague and then again in 1603, one that left more than 30,000 London citizens dead.

“Suspecting that we both were in a house

Where the infectious pestilence did reign,

Sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth,”

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5 Scene 2

Shakespeare’s Birthplace has teamed up with The GAP Arts Project in Balsall Heath and a number of young creatives involved in their Basement Ensemble to direct and perform in a series of short films that will mark the year 2020. They express their experiences of this year through Shakespeare’s text including poetry and prose from Henry V, Macbeth and The Sonnets amongst others, against the backdrop of life during the global pandemic.

I’m sure I am not the only one who is happy to have closed the door on 2020 but we can’t afford to forget the year completely. We must learn and grow and look forward to soon seeing our friends and family again. To meeting and laughing and embracing strangers, but for now all there is to say is:

“Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow

That I shall say good night till it be morrow.”

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 1