Goodbye 2020

It is customary at this time of the year to reflect on the highs and lows of the preceding twelve months. Many will be unlikely to experience nostalgia for a year that has created so much angst. 2020 has provided considerable hardship, ongoing uncertainty and significant social dislocation. It has also generated voluminous commentary, an unprecedented plethora of new words and … the opportunity to evaluate what is important to us.

I doubt that many will lament the passing of the year as Lord Alfred Tennyson does in his 1833 poem The Death of the Old Year for which John Everett Millais and the Dalziel brothers provided a wood engraving for the poem’s reprint in 1857 which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

In the poem, Tennyson describes the passing year as ‘a friend and a true love’ with whom he ‘did so laugh and cry’, while also recognising that others did not fare so well. As the poem concludes, Tennyson, although reluctant to let the old year go, does ‘pivot‘ to anticipate new endeavours with ‘a new face at the door’. I am sure many will look forward to the new face of 2021. The poem can be found at: https://allpoetry.com/The-Death-of-the-Old-Year

Reviewing the year can be both a serious and sober undertaking or can be tackled from a satirical standpoint. Two examples of the latter are The Yearly with Charlie Pickering 2020 (available on ABC iView https://iview.abc.net.au/show/yearly-with-charlie-pickering-2020) and Death to 2020 which is currently showing on Netflix.

Communicating difficult situations and concluding with an upbeat ending is one of the features of musical theatre. It has been said of this form of theatre that ‘when emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, and when it becomes too strong for song, you dance’. It is perhaps not surprising that the coronavirus pandemic has provided so much virtual singing and dancing.

In wishing you all a happy, safe and optimistic New Year, I will conclude this year’s posts with Jimmy Fallon’s ‘year in review’ or ‘2020: The Musical’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjbLY46Vaq8

Fans of musical theatre will recognise reworked lyrics from many Broadway shows including: West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors, The Sound of Music, The Book of Mormon, Wicked, A Chorus Line, Cats, Dreamgirls, Fiddler on the Roof, Hairspray, and Hamilton. Let’s hope that ‘the sun will come out tomorrow’ (Annie) and ‘even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise ‘ (Les Miserables) as we say to ourselves ‘Hakuna matata – no worries’ (The Lion King) and welcome the new face at the door. Bring on 2021!