‘This Is a Real Thing, This Is a Real Person’

How can live theatre document one of the biggest stories barrelling down on humankind?

Neworld Theatre’s production Eyes of the Beast: Climate Disaster Survivor Stories, created with the University of Victoria’s Climate Disaster Project and the school’s department of theatre, is about to demonstrate how a play can capture the human cost of climate change.

Founded in 1994 in Vancouver, Neworld Theatre creates and produces theatrical productions and performance art with the mission of centring stories that dismantle systems of oppression.

Collaboration is central to Neworld’s ethos, and the theatre company found a perfect creative partner with the Climate Disaster Project, an initiative that works with climate disaster survivors to tell their stories.

Opening next week at the University of Victoria’s Phoenix Theatre, Eyes of the Beast features a collection of these first-hand accounts from more than 200 survivors across Canada.

On the eve of the production’s premiere, The Tyee spoke to Neworld artistic director Chelsea Haberlin and managing director Alen Dominguez about the challenges of bringing the reality of climate crisis to the stage. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Tyee: Climate change is one of the greatest issues of the current moment, but it’s often been presented as a more amorphous future. How do you not only present the issue with a degree of immediacy, but also capture the direct impact that it is having on people's daily lives: where they live, how they work, what they want the future to be?

Chelsea Haberlin: The Climate Disaster Project asks specifically what people want to see happen in the future, so we have some very concrete and sometimes less sure answers about what people are [seeking] for themselves and for our society.

Alen Dominguez: I challenge the concept that it’s an amorphous future. At Neworld, we really think about this as something that we are dealing with every day. And that is one of the reasons why we wanted to do the show, because we can feel it.

How do you create the experience of a forest fire or a flood onstage?

Haberlin: We use sound, projections and some lighting. That’s how we work to bring the audience into that space; we immerse the audience in those disasters. But there is also the experience of watching an actor who is acting out what it’s like to live through those scenarios.

I think it creates a great deal of empathy. You can’t look into the face of someone feeling pain and not go there yourself. I think there is something about being live with people that creates that more than any other medium.

Is theatre galvanizing in a way that is different from journalism and documentary cinema?

Haberlin: In theatre, you are in a live space, and I think there is something to being in person with people and telling stories that way. It’s so much more than just hearing. You can feel each other, and you can be in connection with each other, and I think theatre can do that more than any other method.

Dominguez: When we talk about climate change and climate action, there’s power in numbers, so it’s a nice little metaphor that we’re experiencing these stories together. And that we're engaging in conversation together as opposed to just watching it.

Haberlin: It's a much more powerful experience. Also, we’re following with a talkback. The way that [the play] is structured, the audience watches the stories of people who have lived through climate disasters, then we turn it over to the audience to share their perspective.

I think there’s something about being in person that makes people very keen to speak and participate and be in community with each other.

Do you think that oral histories are more powerful than other forms of storytelling?

Haberlin: I know because of this play I should probably say yes, but I think fiction can be incredibly powerful as well. The stories that we’re sharing are extraordinarily impactful, and knowing that they happen for real makes them even more horrifying, sometimes sad, sometimes funny for an audience. I have to remind myself in this rehearsal process that this is a real thing, this is a real person.

How did you ensure that in sharing their individual stories, the survivors weren’t re-exposed to trauma?

Haberlin: That’s really been the work of the Climate Disaster Project. The work that their journalists do is through a trauma-informed lens. They co-create the testimonies that are shared with the people that they interview. Throughout this process there’s been an ongoing back and forth with people whose stories we’re sharing.

I think because the Climate Disaster Project didn’t extract their stories and sell them for shock value, but instead tried to honour the people who had lived through these horrible things, the care that was taken carries through.

Dominguez: I was interviewed for the Climate Disaster Project, and part of that story is in the play. I think it’s kind of a beautiful process, to extract the trauma and put it into an artistic medium. There’s a sense of relief and a sense of being watched and heard that is really satisfying and hopefully will help.

Haberlin: We have heard from some of the people that reading the script has actually been healing for them, that it’s allowed them to look at it in a new way and to understand the power that art can have, helping them to examine their own experience.

In the talkback sessions that are planned after each performance, do you also plan to invite stakeholders, leaders and other people?

Haberlin: The Climate Disaster Project has invited what they’re calling "policy listeners." These are folks that are either currently in government or running for government. [They] will be there watching the show, listening to the talkback sessions and then providing a response on what they heard.

Dominguez: We want to be really careful that it is not a rally. We’re not using it for any political purposes, but we are interested in hearing what people from different political backgrounds take away from the evening, both from the actual play and the stories that hopefully people feel comfortable sharing during the talkback. It’s meant to be neutral, an exercise in listening, and not an exercise in politics.

In addition to bringing people together in a collective experience, what would you like to have emerge out of this production?

Haberlin: I have always felt frustrated that individuals are not more seriously looking at climate change as an issue. I want people to take this seriously and I believe that individuals can have an impact in helping to literally save the world. Or at least save human life on it. The more we can encourage people to care about this and see how their own lives are potentially impacted, the better.

After working on the show for several months, I think we all need to be better prepared. If a climate disaster hits, you have to look after yourself. I think that has been a big thing that has been illuminated for me, that we all need to be saving more money and investing more in plans for disasters. Think about where you live, what could impact you, and prepare. Because it’s gonna come.

Dominguez: I have a [sticker] on the back of my phone that says “Hope for the best and plan for the worst,” and that is kind of how I approach the topic. I hope that it inspires people to pay more attention, because it’s very easy to forget that 2021 was horrendous. If we talk about it, if we remember, then it’s in our minds, and we carry the little decisions that we make every day through our lives that will collectively make a difference. That’s my optimism speaking, but I really believe that we should be preparing better.

Even though no one else will do it for you, government should be doing more, and the way we speak about it should be different and more serious.

‘Eyes of the Beast’ runs Sept. 16-21 at the University of Victoria’s Phoenix Theatre in Victoria, B.C.