DAY 9: A Lesson in How to Laugh Seriously
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 9: Dario Fo’s The Virtuous Burglar from the previous evening is playing on my mind. Prima facie, it is a story led by misunderstandings and performed in an over-the-top, slapstick fashion. But a second look reveals Fo’s embedded commentary on social structure, the class system, and declining moral values. The CCTA plays today, too, use humour to make some stark points.
No Joking Matter This
Damon Chua’s Steamy Session in a Singapore Spa was inspired by an installation by environmental activist Justin Brice and has global warming as its theme. The play is set in a spa room in Singapore. An unsuspecting man steps into the room, unaware that he is part of a sinister experiment. The experiment guide periodically increases the temperature of the room and explains the bodily changes that occur as the temperature climbs. The temperature reaches an unbearable high, and with no scope for escape, the spa user succumbs to the heat. Chua’s only instruction to the production is to keep the tone light-hearted until the end. Thus, when the experiment guide says,
“Don’t try this at home. Unless home happens to be an equatorial country like Singapore, where it’s super humid. Then you don’t even need to try. You’re there.”
…the message hits home, hard.
Playwright Darrah Teitel says, “Writing these short plays has pushed me to imagine climate crisis realities and to embody through my characters how the world is changing and will continue to change.” Her play Eco-Abortion stems from her change in perspective since she had kids, as she hopes for them a future where they are spared from the pain and grief of climate catastrophe.
Emma, a 17-year-old influencer, is at a clinic for an abortion which she is sharing live with her thousands of social media followers. “We haven’t done enough to make this world safe for our kids,” she speaks to her followers through her mobile screen. The influencer is more occupied with the concerns of her live feed than the medical procedure. Teitel’s play is a reminder that our actions will have consequences for future generations.
Apart from the CCTA plays, the programme today also includes a screening of the film Playing With Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency, by creative partners UC Santa Cruz professor Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle. The film seeks to give viewers a different perspective on fire by not looking at it as something to be feared but instead recognising the connection that we have with this element and learning to handle it with responsibility. The movie’s setting in California makes for thought-provoking subtext considering the recent wildfires that blazed through the region earlier this year. On a broader level, the film also makes us rethink our relationship with nature and thus the climate emergency.
“Playing with Fire is about caring for the planet as if it were a lover, not a mother — or a machine,” says Stephens. Both she and Sprinkle define themselves as two ecosexual artists-in-love.
Ecosexual is a new term for me, and the graphic — though mild — portrayal of the term is a shocker, though mild. Some Google-searching reveals that the term first made its appearance on dating websites circa 2000. It later evolved into a movement about the creative collaboration of artists, academics, and lovers. I have to admit that, on the acceptance gauge with ‘way-out-there’ on one end and ‘whatevs’ on the other, I am somewhere at ‘this-is-a-bit-much’ for now. Further exploration beckons.
Ecosexuality aside, the larger question that I am left with is: what determines whether the flame is to be revered or feared? Its intent or its aftermath, planned or coincidental?
