A Citizens' Assembly (cont.) - What are we going to do about the climate crisis? In assocation with GIFT (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre)
A CItizens’ Assembly (cont.): What are we going to do about the climate crisis?
A session run in association with GIFT (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre) and with thanks to Andy Smith
Background:
Yesterday I was at GIFT Festival in Gateshead. I had to leave to get my train to London for D&D. This meant I was going to miss Andy Smith’s show ‘A Citizens’ Assembly’. Very kindly he gave me a copy of the script to read on the train instead. The play is designed to be read by its audience, and I loved being able to experience it as a kind of solo remote audience member. It is about the climate crisis - about what we can do, about how we can take action, or spark action. It ends with an opportunity for its audience to continue the conversation.
Although I’d texted my thoughts to GIFT’s director, Kate Craddock, when reading the script, I hadn’t been able to have a conversation on the train. So I decided to call this session to open a space for that here at D&D, sparked by that show that started in Seat B22 on a train passing through Gateshead on the way to London.
(Side note 1: GIFT Festival was sparked itself at a D&D a long time ago. It’s now in its 16th year. I highly recommend you visiting one year!)
(Side note 2: I timed this D&D session to be at the same time as Andy was doing his second show of A Citizens’ Assembly in Gateshead.)
So, what can we do about the climate crisis?
THE SKILL OF UPSTAGING
I started off by sharing a thought I’d had on the train. I’d look up and seen everyone (including me) on their phones. And I was thinking about upstaging and wrestling attention back. There are all these algorithms that are built around capturing our attention to generate advertising revenue. How can we use our skills at upstaging to bring people’s attention to climate and the environment? Art as activism. (Bring flashmobs back?!)
USE OF RESOURCES
We talked about how everything we do is about environmental sustainability whether it’s the theme of the theatre we make or not. How we operate, how we use resources, how we travel. I talked about economic pragmatism being a motivation for my company’s environmental action. We have made sets by cutting up our old sets. And this is more environmentally sustainable, but it’s not why we did it.
UNLIKELY ALLIES
We talked about how positive action on climate can be sparked by things like a desire for energy security, national autonomy - not always the motivations that have sparked action in climate activists. That this is important.
TELLING POSITIVE STORIES
Bridget talked about the sense of powerlessness and guilt that leads to inaction. Dan talked about how this benefits the oil industry. We talked about the conundrum of not knowing how to say the things we know in a new way - I’m just repeating myself and it hasn’t worked before.
But we really don’t hear the stories of positive change enough. By telling them more can we build momentum and hope and the capacity for faster change? We are de-carbonising globally. That is the direction of travel. It’s just not fast enough.
CHANGE HAPPENS VERY SLOWLY THEN ALL AT ONCE
Perhaps this change of momentum can happen in climate action. But it is also true of climate change. Will we run out of time?
Erica gave the example of the movement that got the vote for women. The calls for change had been ignored for a long time. Then World War I happened, and it created a situation where women proved their capability at delivering for the country. It gave the movement the momentum it needed to make change happen.
FIND AGREEMENT (AND DISAGREEMENT) IN UNEXPECTED PLACES
I talked about a talk I’d been to called ‘Facing down Civil War’ which was about tactics for bringing communities together in post-conflict areas, and how these tactics could be useful in preventing civil war / conflict in America (where the book’s author is based). One of the tactics was about breaking down political / tribal binaries. So actively looking for surprising places where we find connection (and likewise, seeing the disconnections with those we think we’re the same as).
Dan talked about tactics for door knocking. That as a Green campaigner, they know no one wants a lecture on their doorstep. So they ask questions instead - “What do you care about?” and out of what ever is says, they look for a point of connection with Green politics.
DO WE NEED TO DO LESS TELLING AND MORE ASKING?
Goes back to Andy’s approach in A Citizens’ Assembly.
Rhiannon asked “Should we be trying to persuade at all?” She talked about working in a relational context instead.
People don’t want to be told things. Sometimes being overtly political puts a whole load of people off straight away. Dan said “I’ve stopped giving my shows obviously political titles.”
THE ACT OF BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER
Bridget talked about a river project she was developing. A project that collected stories along the River Itchen. The focus would be joining up stories from communities along the river, rather than telling them something. We are good at this in theatre - creating a ‘neutral’ space where different voices can be heard and connected. Opening up possibility.
Division is built into the fabric of our cities (and villages) and social structures. It’s not idealistic to believe we can use our skills to create spaces that disrupt these divisions.
NO SHAME IN THE RETRAIN
Rhiannon talked about how she was holding another session about this. But there is a question about whether being an artist is the best way to make a difference. She is retraining as a horticulturalist. Erica is doing an MA in Ethics. Getting into new spaces where new modes of thinking are possible. Making a show isn’t always the best use of our energy. Although sometimes it is. And whatever we do we bring our creative skills to that space.
WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE?
Erica talked about what we actually say when we do manage to upstage / wrestle attention. It can’t be to tell a story that makes people feel guilty. Bridget talked about how there is so much flippant negativity about climate prospects. It impacts on us and our children.
THE IMPORTANCE OF STORYTELLING
Erica talked about Artemis. About not expecting to be interested in it. But then thinking of it as an arts project. So many people were moved by it. It forged connection across unlikely parts of the community (those that wonder at space/nature, the tech bros, etc).
Rhiannon talked about how Artemis is still about mining though. It is not only a story of wonder. It’s also about extraction.
Imogen talked about a book called Hospicing Modernity by Pauline Alvarez. (Or it was Rhiannon who talked about it. Apologies for not remembering!) It asks what we need to let go of to get to the next stage.
We talked about stories where a river has been granted a legal right. Where soil was given a royalty on an audio recording. These stories can change the way people see the world.
AND THEN THERE’S AI
I talked about the Grayson Perry documentary about AI. About one of the ideas that is implicit in it is that we can’t stop humans innovating. This has been true since the Luddites. The only difference now is that it’s the middle classes that will be put out of jobs - the lawyers, doctors, journalists, rather than the working classes that mechanisation put out of work hundreds of years ago.
Humans can’t not invent the technology that we sense is possible. But can we build frameworks around what we do with that technology?
HOW DO WE SUSTAIN WHAT WE DO?
How do we not get burned out by all of this. Burnout is implicit, because it is how capitalism works.
We talked about theatre not working within a capitalist context any more. Erica reminded us that it does in some sense. In the commercial theatre that is thriving at the top of the pyramid.
We talked about working in different contexts and spaces. Again, this is something we have the skills for.
Bridget talked about a Venn Diagram of passion, skills and the benefit that we want to bring. It’s finding action from that space where these three elements overlap.
(CONT.)
This is not the end. This is an invitation to continue the conversation. To bring it into other spaces. To mull. To take action. To carry on.