A German Life and Wolf Lullaby were among the theatrical highlights

But there were also moments when performances became possible and despite masks and distancing and the bleakness of foyers often bereft of a bar or even a program seller, there were good live shows turning up.

And on the matter of programs, are we witnessing the death of the printed ones, with a growing expectation that you are supposed to ferret out the information on line? What happens to the historical record?

A short and miraculously timed trip to Sydney in June yielded the exuberant and sensitive musical Come From Away, about the people of Gander who took in planes full of people grounded in the aftermath of 9/11. Any chance to get into the historic old Capitol Theatre is good, too, with its statuary and its light display and its starry ceiling. Canberra will see this show next year.

Up the hill at Belvoir Theatre, a strong and somewhat surreal interpretation of The Cherry Orchard was topped off with the performance of Peter Carroll as old servant Firs. (He's away with the pixies and living in another era but it is devastating when he is left behind.)

Back in the ACT, a stand out among the survivals of Canberra Rep's intended season was an elegantly tense take on Rope, the Patrick Hamilton play upon which Alfred Hitchcock based his film, with a first rate double act from Pippin Carroll and Josh Wiseman as the amoral protagonists.

Some beautiful musicals fought their way through postponements; Queanbeyan Players' cheerful family favourite The Sound of Music, Canberra Philharmonic's haunting Jersey Boys and Free Rain's gorgeously up-beat life-loving Mamma Mia!

Out at the Q in Queanbeyan, Echo Theatre provided a tense evening with Hilary Bell's dark story of a child murderer in Wolf Lullaby, and visiting NZ crazies A Slightly Isolated Dog gave us an improvisatory off-the-wall take on the gothic horrors of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the now much more flexible Bicentennial Hall.

The Playhouse was visited by Belvoir Street's Fangirls, a rather fabulous piece that turned the tables on the image of the screaming female fan. John Bell sat in an armchair and ruminated economically on Shakespeare in One Man in his Time. Drew Forsythe made a haunting aged Queen Elizabeth II in The Wharf Revue: Can of Worms, forgetting Phillip's death already. And Robyn Nevin terrified as the woman who worked for Goebbels in A German Life.

Then there was the tumultuous energy of Elaine Crombie doing great things with Indigenous history and experience in Sydney Theatre Company's The 7 Stages of Grieving contrasting with the writing and performing at The Street Theatre of Dylan Van Den Berg's Milk, a powerfully introspective piece about his Indigenous Tasmanian heritage.

Last seen this year were Chiaroscuro, David Atfield's moody take on the life and vision of artist Caravaggio, and a valiant bit of Dickens with A Christmas Carol filling the empty space at Canberra Rep Theatre.

An empty year? A tough one, but look at all the good things that got through the cracks, thanks to the resilience and perseverance of theatre makers in the time of a challenge that strikes directly at the heart of live performance.

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