A new solo show from Canberra acrobat and illustrator Jake Silvestro over two years in the making will debut at The Playhouse from 1 April.

The aptly titled December was inspired by the artist’s own experience during the Australian bushfires in the summer of 2019-20.

It was such a profound time for Silvestro that he found himself questioning his own career.

“So many of us just remember that awful summer of being inside and wearing masks, and for me, anyway, a general sense of helplessness and hopelessness,” he said.

Mulling over his future, toward the end of that summer he relocated to Germany for work, where he found himself explaining the situation to many people he met.

“All these Europeans … they had seen the fires on social media, the dramatic images, but they wanted to know how it was affecting people and what was happening afterwards,” he said.

“That was when I went ‘okay, I think my contribution here is I’m repeating this story to people, maybe this is a story I should try to put on stage’.”

From there, the pandemic proved December’s catalyst. Initially meant to spend two years in Germany, Silvestro’s stay only lasted three weeks before he hurried back home amid the chaos of March 2020.

With a “strong foundation” in place, he has spent the intervening two years developing the work to a place where it’s now “stage and tour ready”.

Given the subject matter, Silvestro is conscious that December is more “emotionally hard hitting” compared to a typical circus show.

“That’s something that’s been really important for me in the making of this work, to deliver something that’s meaningful and significant,” he said. “I’m trying to take audiences through a tough experience.

“It’s maybe not your usual colours and frills kind of circus show, but I really believe circus in Australia can be so much more than that.”

It’s the first time Silvestro has melded his two practices – illustration and acrobatics – after a long time trying to conceive a way to do so.

“Trying to find the middle ground between the different circus forms and the drawings has been a really interesting exercise,” he said.

A “strong and rich narrative” connects the two, with each informing the other as the show unfolds.

“It’s finding that connection of the macro of movement and micro of drawing, and how they translate and switch.”

Just one drawing is pre-made, with the rest completed throughout the performance in a “broad, expressive” fashion.

Having studied printmaking at ANU’s School of Art and Design, Silvestro said the skills he learnt there have served him well throughout his career on stage.

“A lot of performing and my stage craft really does start in a sketchbook,” he said.

“I really am interested in that conversation, the way I can get something from the sketchbook to the stage, and the other way around.”

December will be performed at The Playhouse, Civic, 1-2 April; canberratheatrecentre.com.au