We’ve been talking this morning, the team at Open Clasp – about World Environment Day, the news this morning and what happens if we do nothing in 5yrs time, the world warming, people on the move, Gaza and land/countries that will be under seas and/or uninhabitable.
The Soloman Islands has been on my mind since we started with ‘Mycelial’ our new show out in the Autumn. There’s a theatre company there called https://www.theconch.co.nz/conchus/stages-of-change Stages of Change, I emailed back in the day hoping to connect, moved by the idea of a theatre company doing the same work as Open Clasp regarding domestic violence and at the same time living with the threat of climate change and rising seas, that will take their island/s.
‘The Solomon Islands produce less than one hundredth of 1% of global greenhouse gases. But along with other low-lying Pacific islands, they are paying the highest price as rising sea levels puts them on the frontline of climate change’.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/articles/zcyqdp3
This connection was made back in 2017 with Key Change (sent to the women’s theatre company during the global live screening). I’ve kept a light touch connection ever since and it was during a project meeting this week, where our Finance & Operations Manager (who leads on our environmental bronze award/status) mentioned the Solomon Islands, how we always have environmental issues on our minds, from the shows and our targets of low carbon and sustainability, to the non-existent recycling bins at West End Women & Girls Centre (Rachel is on it).
Mycelial is our latest production to be toured (theatrical piece for film) in the Autumn of this year (2024). When working on the script I/we talked about climate change, in the workshops and then I placed the Ever Given (ship stuck) in the man-made Suez Canal – the impact of goods being stuck, trade, Brexit, borders, refugees, war, the abuse of power and the planet as the backdrop to the storytelling – stories of sex worker activists across the world from 2020 to 2022 (when the script was created) – capturing the pandemic, Brexit, borders in the sea, land, the invasion of Ukraine/war, people’s need to flee and our agreement to offer refuge to those who need it https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
Here at the office, we talk about the bins, the bit we can do and the vast amount of work we feel ‘others’ need to do – How do we/you stay hopeful when we feel powerless, we turn lights off, argue for bins but when will the bombs stop falling?
Catrina
