In partnership with BOCA DEL LUPO
Vancouver/ Dublin 2018
Summary
Brave New World is an ambitious new theatrical event scheduled to take place in Dublin and Vancouver in 2018. This large-scale performance takes its inspiration from Aldous Huxley’s brilliant novel, and transports the audience to a future world where important questions are raised about how we live today. The experience creates for audiences an energetic and engaging exploration of the urgent challenge of climate change, and aims to provoke new reflections on the theme.
BRAVE NEW WORLD
Goals
The enormity of climate change can be overwhelming. The discussion is cloaked in impenetrable data, conflicting predictions and often a sense of sheer dread that makes us turn away. By embarking on an artistic exploration we are aiming draw out the human stories and the drama that lies at the heart of the issue. Looking ahead one hundred years, how will the lives of ordinary people have changed. Will families look different, will societies come together or fall apart, will empathy triumph or will individualism win out.
Of course, our reason for looking to the future, is that it gives us a clearer picture of the present. As the planet changes and resources become scarcer how will people and broader communities respond? Will our world be led by populists, who exploit human fears and greed; or by visionaries who understand the need for innovation, community and inclusion? We believe our work can provoke new reflections on an urgent and important issue, and pose important questions about how we live today. The audience become ‘future historians’ attempting to make sense of today’s mistakes with the luxury of a century of hindsight. It asks us to imagine what we will have learnt in a hundred years, and explores how our actions today impact on tomorrow.
Research, Development and Collaboration
Brave New World (BNW) will be the culmination of a four year development process in collaboration with Boca Del Lupo (Canada). This development work has been engaging with the idea of how to look at the most urgent issue facing civilisation across more than one presentation under the title Expedition. Expedition was granted Arts Council Project Funding for a showing in Dublin Theatre Festival 2015 as part of the In Development strand.
So far, the collaborators have worked on developing a range of in-progress works, some of which may be developed for integration into the larger scale of BNW. The work has been multi disciplinary, and has included a variety of artists from different disciplines.
The outcomes to date have included:
• site-specific theatrical presentations that included a symposium that integrated
performances by actors and circus artists, along with scientists and activists.
• 2 scripted and performed theatre pieces “The Table” and “Underwater Archeologist”
• an interactive Digital platform – link HERE
• video art
• an interactive visual art installation