The latest production at The New Vic is a piece of experimental theatre that is short but packs an amazing punch and has a message that will (and most definitely should) impact on the audience’s collective memory.
A Play For The Living In A Time of Extinction drives home the ecological challenges that face our planet at the current time through the medium of a one-woman show backed by a team of cyclists and eventually a community choir.
Naomi (Danielle Henry) is a dramaturgue who is part of a team who were scheduled to present the play. Sadly one of the cast has a mother who is now terminally ill and is unable to play her part. Naomi’s original intention was to cancel the show altogether as she has no experience of performing in front of an audience even though she has researched the subject to hell.
However she is persuaded to continue with the production and puts on an excellent performance as an amateur presenter with a nervous projection in her voice and a stumbling and rambling approach as she finds her thespian feet.
Those feet are soon discovered as she becomes more confident and she delivers her message with all the confidence of a researcher who thoroughly knows her stuff and the power of a woman committed to her cause.
Naomi links individual death to the extinction of a species and narrates the story of the birth and progression of our planet as it has passed through a previous five periods of extinction that extinguished the majority of life at the time – think of the loss of the dinosaurs. This was done through a mixture of methods ranging from presentation akin to a primary classroom through to erudite explanations and with no small amount of audience participation.
The contention is that we are passing through a sixth period of extinction which is progressing at a far more rapid pace than its five predecessors. The belief is that this has been brought about through the actions of groupings of people who consider themselves to be at the apex of society and who feel that they will be immune to the loss of individual species.
The facts presented give the lie to this thought. Examples are given of how the loss of one animal can have consequences to the web of life that we all rely on. Verifiable scientific reports relate that huge swathes of our flora and fauna are on the verge of disappearing completely and this account was admirably reinforced with a hard-hitting montage of some species that are heavily at risk. Far from being a list of obscure species that would be largely unknown to the general public, it included animals and plants familiar to all – hedgehog and polar bear; cod and haddock; ash and beech trees to name a few.
Members of Newcastle (Staffs) Tri Club play an integral part in the proceedings. Members of the club ride cycles throughout to provide all of the power for lighting and audio and there is a dramatic pause when the auditorium falls into darkness when the theatre goes off-grid. There is also a powerful finale provided by The New Vic Community Choir Company as this newly created entity sang a simple but moving song to end proceedings. Their diversity seemed to emphasise the fact that we all need to work together if we wish to remain living and not disappear in the latest age of extinction.
Henry did an excellent job navigating us through the story created by Miranda Rose Hall and directed by Katie Mitchell as she progressed from being a nervous amateur to a passionate presenter of her cause. They have produced a slice of theatre that was highly appreciated by the audience members who left the New Vic feeling that they had been immersed in a presentation similar to a David Attenborough production. Congratulations to all concerned.
A Play For The Living In A Time of Extinction has a running time of 70 minutes and continues until June 24th. For ticket information contact 01782 717962
