climate change

12, Greenhouse Theatre

The Greenhouse Theatre - Canary Wharf

by Diana Miranda

The Greenhouse Theatre is a zero-waste, pop-up venue created to motivate people to take action in response to climate change and, through the power of storytelling, help build individual emotional connections with the immediate natural environment. As part of their summer programme and written by playwright and climate activist Henry Roberts, 12 follows a couple who help each other find a sense of self in a world in crisis. He designs buildings and can never quite shake the feeling that every creation is deemed to fade away. She is a linguist and has a passion for words as a means to bond with our surroundings. Together they navigate a world in which both words and landscapes seem to be disappearing as if hit by an irreversible pandemic, and try to find ways to inspire sustainable and meaningful connections.

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Thinking Bigly, online

Thinking Bigly — Then Do Better

by Laura Kressly

Between Ben Yeoh and David Finnegan, there’s an impressive array of interests, knowledge and skills. Theatre, economics and climate change are among them. Their lecture-performance amalgamates these three topics into an engaging, informative and interactive presentation that gives a wide-angle view on what we can do to save the planet.

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Two Super Super Hot Men, VAULT Festival

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By Evangeline Cullingworth

Hidden away in a soundproofed studio, two moustached men defy Mother Nature. Foley art is shrouded in a sexy mystery. I hear fire crackling, but I see Greggs wrapper. I hear glaciers melting, but I see pinecone. It doesn’t make sense and if I think about it for too long I get sweaty and nervous.

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How to Save a Rock, VAULT Festival

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by Jade Pathak

What does it look like when you mix ethical, underground theatre with a Disney-esque musical that follows a heroic, Greta Thunberg-type, a gardener and an enigmatic polar bear? Well, Pigfoot Theatre show us, and it’s a whirlwind of fun for all ages with a live, whimsical score. Sharp, funny and informative, something special has been created here, and the care and love for this production is visible from every detail, from the bike powered lighting strips, to the recycled tin cans.

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When the Sea Swallows Us Whole, VAULT Festival

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by Dora Bodrogi

Climate, sexuality, religion, growing up, friendship, abandonment, and cats come together in the dystopian yet quirky play. Natasha Collie invites us to a small seaside town on the verge of disappearing. As the coast erodes further and further, the waves and the merciless demolition authorities threaten the community’s homes. Coming of age in a place that is succumbing piece by piece to the sea is a strange experience.

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In My Lungs the Ocean Swells, VAULT Festival

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by Fergus Church

It’s a strange thing to hear the sea when you’re 40 odd miles from it, sat on a wooden bench underneath train tracks and footsteps.

A blue tarpaulin. Plastic crates. The stuff of seafarers.

The dampness in the underground air acquires a salty tang.

The high brick walls crag themselves into cliffs embracing a beach.

The sea suddenly feels close.

We are sat around in the half-dark, waiting for something to happen, the tide to come in at dusk.

Then the blueness is unfurled and the waves are lapping at our toes.

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I Don’t Know What to Do, VAULT Festival

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by Isabel Becker

New artistic company Creative Destruction bring forward a pertinent interrogation of the hypocrisies behind the climate crisis movement in their entertaining and moving play. Despite the laziness of the production’s title, which sounds like a draft idea that never quite made it to review (the play is still a work in progress), Zoe Lafferty’s autobiographical story of the 2019 climate protests certainly takes ownership of the theatre as a powerful vehicle for social change.

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Rage But Hope, Streatham Space Project

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by Laura Kressly

An M&S-shopping grandmother. A year seven girl. A young, gay black man. An armed services vet. These are some of the Extinction Rebellion activists that playwright Stephanie Martin celebrates through this articulate and impassioned collection of monologues that advocate for people to commit to any level of action against climate change. However, the problematic aspects of the movement are largely glossed over in order to frame its collective impact as wholly positive.

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How to Save a Rock, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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By Meredith Jones Russell

An earnest entreaty to save our planet, How to Save a Rock is a hugely well-intentioned and charming play which just slightly runs out of steam. It’s packed full of other forms of energy, however, as the whole show claims to be carbon neutral, powered by an on-stage bike and solar power.

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Are we not drawn onward to new erA, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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by Laura Kressly

Whether society is moving backwards or forwards is a matter of debate, though in regards to climate change, it’s pretty clear we are determined to march onwards to our own destruction. Is it too late to undo the damage we’ve caused? Is magic the only thing that can save us? In this slick, multimedia production from Ontroerend Goed, the Belgian company employs clever staging, a palindromic structure, and impressive design to pose these questions, even though there are no easy answers.

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