In a time of uncertainty and confusion surrounding the climate, and wondering if we should all pack up and move to Mars, we’re faced with a whole lot of climate related media, and it can be pretty overwhelming. Enter: Scenes From the Climate Era—a thought-provoking production, that instead of putting us in the naughty corner, sits with us in our discomfort, and understands. Written by climate expert and playwright David Finnigan, it doesn’t spoon-feed you information, ideals or ideas, but presents thought-provoking insights and imaginations. Beaches where there once were none, and parties while the Earth gets hotter. It’s about the choices we made yesterday, and the beautiful difficulty of tomorrow, with reassurance of our capability to make an impact. It’s a play worth getting excited about, and luckily for us, it’s coming to IPAC next week, thanks to Belvoir Street Theatre and Merrigong.

We were glad to chat with actor Abbie-lee Lewis, who is gearing up for the show’s very short second run, and has all 65 of the play’s scenes nailed.

Wanderer: It's been a while now, but what was your first thought when you picked up the script for this play?

Abbie-lee: My first impression was, how is this going to be theatrical? But then that kind of morphed into a curiosity. A curiosity more-so about the content: the climate, and how relatable it is.

Well, of course it was written by David Finnigan, who's a writer and a climate expert. How did his expertise help mould the play and how it turned out?

Yeah! He was in the room for the first two weeks, and as actors, it's actually a real treat to have a writer in the room. Not just from a writing perspective, but from the scientific ideas that climate kind of brings forth. We could pick his brain about where he found these little excerpts or inspirations, it was really, really insightful. And also for him to go, ‘I don't expect you to be climate experts in this play, but I have some answers if you're curious’.

And I've read about how the piece showcases humanity and the environment—how they kind of overlap and come together.

I think the kind of unique perspective that this piece brings forth is that we've taken the climate for granted, and how much we need it and how much it's part of us, as opposed to it being purely a resource for us. So I think that's kind of the unique perspective that this piece gives us. I come out of it every night feeling grateful for what we have.

So the play has 65 scenes. Are there a few that have left a lasting impression on you?

Yeah, actually, it's literally a two minute scene, just one person, kind of giving us a hypothetical about a cat. The scene could be hypothetically just a cat on stage because we're into the future and antibiotics don't work anymore, so we can't have cats. So the scene is just us admiring a cat–and there's no cat on stage. I think that's the scene that’s been implanted in my head because of the way we, again, take for granted our little creatures that are a part of our family. The way we live now can inform or affect future generations, so it's just kind of a really lovely, small way of reshaping the way we kind of think about things that we have in our lives–our families. Or our fur-families.

I think that presenting a speculated future can be super interesting. And thought provoking. Is that what David was going for with the writing?

Oh, yes–actually thought provoking such a great word, but also like, the best way I can explain it is: you see a square, but if you turn the square, you can see another side of the square and it becomes a cube. And there's different ways of looking at the things that we think we know to be true.

Is there a few ways that the piece is able to present such a tricky topic in a positive and engaging way?

I always find positive a funny word. I think it is the role of an artist to actually poke and provoke an audience to think, and the role of theatre–especially because it’s live. I don't have any guarantees that audiences are gonna come out of this feeling hopeful or positive. But what I do think the play offers is alternatives. From last time the show was on, audiences have come out feeling quite overwhelmed. What we’re attempting to do is go, ‘Hey, that overwhelmedness is totally valid and we're here with you–you're not alone in that. There are thousands and millions of people in the world who are feeling what you are feeling. We hear you and see you’.

So, why should people who don't ordinarily see theatre productions come and see this one?

Hopefully to see a version of themselves represented, or a version of how they think,even if it is for just two minutes. I do feel that that's the beauty of theater is that you can sit in a room with 400 people and watch something, and out of those 400, at least a hundred people are gonna relate to that thing on stage.That's why theater is amazing. I think this piece gives an opportunity for people to connect –all different types of people. And, I do think having 65 scenes, we're not gonna be able to cover every single element of the climate change crisis era. But we hope that we, you know, at least give a little bit of something to everyone.

Scenes from the Climate Era is running from 14th-17th of April. You can buy tickets here.

OUR CHAT WITH THE CAST OF SCENES FROM THE CLIMATE ERA

BTS with The Sewing Collective

YOUR MAY GIG GUIDE