The intention of this project is simple; to give women a space to feel and explore the emotions they feel surrounding climate change freely and with no judgement. The piece discusses what it means to be a woman in this world, and the burden and empowerment that comes with challenging the climate crisis. A soundscape combining interviews and found poetry represents the voices of over 50 women who contributed to the project. This underscores the striking image of a lone woman holding a large block of ice. After a while she is relieved of this burden with audience members invited to take some time to carry the block of ice and share the weight. Projections of water illuminate the performers body, casting the natural world onto our human form. What comes together is an immersive experience, where one can sit in silent contemplation of the present and the future or choose to share their experiences in conversation with one another. An anonymous “confessions” board gives another opportunity to make a contribution. The piece offers comfort: there are blankets, tea, biscuits, and an opportunity to feel less alone. Simultaneously it offers space for women’s realities of climate change to be felt and experienced in their wholeness.
My practice is in socially engaged theatre and performance that offers a commentary on the world we live in today, with the opportunity to imagine a different future, a future informed and envisaged by communities whose ideas, experiences, even lives are overlooked as the world searches for solutions to global problems. Grounded in my belief that the local can transform the global, I focus on facilitating connections within these communities, forming relationships between people through arts in a way that puts their voices centre stage, and empowers them to take step together, collectively in a strive for change.
To develop my practice further, I am undertaking an MA in Theatre for Social, Political and Environmental Change, through which I am combining my specialism in community arts with the environment. In a time of environmental crisis and ecological devastation, my work aims to bring people together, to understand the relationships they foster with the natural world and how they can develop these into advocacy, conservation and care for all that is around us.
