All Dressed Up & Nowhere To Go

A collection of portraits and interviews from the year the audience stayed home.

Can a pantomime artist make children laugh on Zoom? How does an acrobat thrill without gasps from the crowd? What does the harpist feel when no one is listening?

Except for the key workers, we all screeched to a halt in 2020, and for the ones who dress up to entertain, livelihoods have shifted, identities lost. Who are we when we’re alone and how do we cope? We were surprised to find most artists and performers haven’t felt sad, lost and alone.

They’ve slowed down, felt deep gratitude, taken time just to play or invest in buried passions. The cabaret artist took up roller skating, the belly dancer became a climate activist, the magician started a fine arts degree, the toastmaster took on the hedge and the high wire walker kept walking – a foot above his lawn.

When the audience is gone and the lights go out we can still make the deepest connections, with ourselves.