Climate Stories Late is a multi-sensory response about climate change developed with our community of local artists. We sat down with Theatre Makers: Listen to the Landscape group – Helen Wells, Helen of Norwich, Adrian Tissier and Bridget McKenzie – to talk about the soundscapes they have created for the event and the importance of sharing climate stories.
Tell me about the soundscapes you created for Climate Stories Late
Helen Wells: We have been working on a project called Listen to the Landscape, and we are creating three soundscapes on the elements, wildlife and landscape. I responded to some of the writing we have been doing and imagined the earth speaking and what the earth would say.
Helen of Norwich: I am not sure. In my head, they are divided up in that way. One of the bits I did was I recorded some of my stand-up comedy about climate change, so it was all the jokes I had ever made about climate all in one package, if you like.
Adrian: There are a couple of different elements we have been working on. We have been working collaboratively. We have been creating words and ideas which we have been recording together and separately and they are going into the soundscape and about the climate crisis. We have also separately recorded sounds, so I have recorded some birds in local wildlife areas that are endangered and threatened because of the climate and will also feature in the soundscape.
Bridget: I did quite a few things, including what is nature? What is landscape? How do we listen to landscape? So, a kind of philosophical level to make the listeners question.
Is this something you are all passionate about?
Bridget: It is 100% what I do in my profession and life. I tend to organise things, so I run Climate Museum UK, and I run Culture Declares Emergency, and I don’t get enough chances to be creative. I chose this opportunity to be more grounded, creative and active because I spend so much time training people how to do it but not doing it myself.
Adrian: I am currently doing an MA in creative writing, and my dissertation is about nature and the climate. It is absolutely everything I think of.
Helen Wells: I make creative work about the climate crisis from different aspects, trying to work creatively with the issues to share the information and get people to engage with the questions in a way that is accessible.
Why do you think it is important that artists share their climate stories?
Bridget: We all have to share our truths, and we need many different truths. The most effective way to transform people’s attitudes is to see that other people are doing it too. We can all hear the landscape speaking, and we can all feel in our bodies that the climate is changing, so what are we going to do about it?
Helen Wells: We all need to put our hands up and share our experience of what it is like living in this world and what share what we feel we can do to it to transform it. A lot of this is being visible.
Adrian: I think in my view the only hope going forward is for people to express themselves creatively about the environment. Creative expression is essential to find answers for the real emergency that everyone is facing.
Helen of Norwich: Everything has multiple answers. For some people, science will be one-way people will try and understand the crisis. For others, it might be creativity. For someone else, it might be spirituality or singing. Creativity gets forgotten in our drive to progress, and having a moment to be creative is really important.
Are you excited about showcasing your work?
Helen: I am really looking forward to Climate Stories Late. It will be the whole building, and you can wander around and immerse yourself in the installation. What we will have made will be transformed yet again, and we will be hearing it fresh as well. So, seeing all the work come together in this amazing collaboration is exciting.
Adrian: It is really exciting.
What do you hope people will get from seeing your work?
Helen of Norwich: I hope they get a different perspective on something.
Adrian: I want them to think about the climate, but I definitely want them to think about the theatre. I think Norwich Theatre has been very brave to put on this whole programme of events, and it is making a stand and saying something. But how can Norwich Theatre respond to this, and how can they continue the conversation?
To find out more about our now fully booked Climate Stories Late event, head here.
