DAY 5: Forecast – Gusts of Wind with a Chance For Hope
What happens when what started on the “fringe” takes centrestage?
It becomes a global celebration of everything art. For 78 years, the cobblestones of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have witnessed the move of the margin to the mainstream. …And this year, it will also give volume to the 50 curated climate narratives that refuse to stay silent.
Storyteller and Arts Enthusiast Himali Kothari reports from Edinburgh.
Day 5: Storm Floris hit parts of the UK on Monday at the speed of over 100 mph. It plunged many homes into darkness, trains were cancelled and other services were attacked. Here, in Edinburgh the intensity was down by several mph and loss was restricted to missing hats and scarves. The storm has moved on but at Venue 13, the winds of change continue to blow. I am joined for the day by a young theatregoer, fifteen-year-old Kiana Dharia, who has chosen to abandon her parents to the tourist traps and take in some Fringe.
When the Winds of Change Blow
The CCTA program each day is presented by a different theatre group. All fifty plays in the collection are made available to interested groups. They choose the plays they wish to perform and curate a program in their preferred style and form. Today’s program is curated by Ireland-based Fregoli Theatre.
Nicolas Billon’s The Polar Bears kicks off the show. The Arctic is running out of seals and the polar bears are hungry. A hilarious conversation ensues as two polar bears brainstorm about solving their problem. Can they get seals delivered, and eat the delivery man for dessert? Can they go to TESCO, and eat the employees for desert? Should they eat the audience? Billon’s play emerges from the thought that policies and political action need emphasis and not market-based solutions. The play is followed by a rap performance coined by Fregoli’s Tracy Bruen, inspired by Ice-Ice Baby.
Charly Evon Simpson’s ‘A Little Green’ encourages us to look for possibility in the face of despair and is presented by two child actors with a recorded reading of the script forming the back drop of the performance.
In the next, Georgina Escobar takes inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s quote, ‘It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still love it’. Her play ‘All Its Tainted Glory’ unfolds in the form of a conversation between a cynic and a hopeless romantic as they discuss the future of a school. Through her play, Escobar questions, are we tainting narratives of progress for profit?
Playwright and dramaturg Yvette Nolan says, “Writing plays on climate change has given me some hope. It is easy to sink into despair watching the growing climate catastrophe, and these little plays have allowed me to ‘write it better’. Seeing all the writers’ plays reminds me that we all can do something.” Her play ‘The Ranger’ is borne out of her optimism as she envisions us moving towards a world that has turned into one giant nature park.
My young companion is thoughtful as we walk out of Venue 13. “Hearing about global warming on the telly from a news reporter to having a dramatised sense of the situation like the polar bears created a lot of imagery. It made me realise the do or die scenario of climate change. And, I loved the Ice Ice Baby!” says Kiana.
Drama Spills Into the Audience
We have time to take in one more show, and I summon my teenybopper spirit from many decades ago to choose a show that is both entertaining and age-appropriate. ‘Almost Everything’ about two flatmates whose friendship turns into love and then disrupts into a love triangle seems to tick the boxes.
The play? Predictable. The audience? Not!
The narrative goes through the practised twists and turns of a rom-com and I find myself drowsily counting the minutes to the end. Until, a collective gasp from the three teen girls in the row in front of me catches my attention. And then I am riveted. Not to the play but in the drama in the audience. The play has reached its climax, revelations abound. The girls gasp and squeal and clutch each other’s hands. They slap their palms to silence the ‘no’ in their mouths when the hero makes the unpopular move. And I am almost certain that they were going to step in and slap him. Have these girls been planted by the production? Nope. They are just many years and many-many trope-d romcoms away from the jadedness I have achieved.
Despite my eyeroll at their naivete, I can imagine how their energy would have infected the two star-crossed lovers on stage, standing barely two feet away. It would have elevated their performance and infused them with the confidence for the next show. The play ends to cheers and woo-hoos. As the lights come on, and I look around it is clear I am at the wrong end of the age spectrum here. Kiana, too, seems sufficiently entertained. It is a win-win, for me and the artists on stage.
