Green-powered comedy comes to Circa
Lynda Chanwai-Earle was a student at Auckland University in 1985 when the Rainbow Warrior was bombed.
She had partied on the houseboat next door and mourned, with the crowds down at the dock, the first major act of terrorism in New Zealand. Since then, our role in protecting the environment has played on her mind but she was gripped by Antarctica since her friend and inaugural Antarctic Fellow Chris Orsman went there in 1997.
Hole is the second in her Antarctic Trilogy, commissioned by Circa Theatre, a black comedy about a scientist, an activist, an American Marine, and one lifethreatening ozone hole.
Not content to keep just the subject matter green, the whole show is powered by renewable energy.
The production travelled with solar panels and wind turbine, to be set up on Circa’s balcony, and specially designed efficient lighting and sound equipment.
Presented by Ice Floe Productions Tapui Ltd, it is written by Chanwai-Earle and directed by David O’Donnell, with music by Gareth Farr ONZM.
It is 1985 and the discovery of the ozone hole has shocked the world. It is the Wild West at McMurdo Station and Scott Base, little more than a decade since the US Navy lifted its ban on women travelling to the ice.
Stella, aNew Zealand scientist, Ioane, a US Marine from American Samoa, and Bonny, a Greenpeace activist, meet during one Antarctic summer, and what unfolds is as dark, funny and monumental as the discovery of the hole itself.
The show is part of the Women’s Theatre Festival at Circa Theatre, on from September 22-26. It is performed by a new generation of stars: Stevie Hancox-Monk, Sepe Mua’au and Elle Wootton.
Chanwai-Earle was the International Institute of Modern Letters writer in residence at Victoria University in 2019, which she said was the best, most productive year of her life. In writing the trilogy, she interviewed scientists and experts around the world; and a real-life Greenpeace activist on the ice at the time, Dr Maj De Poorter.
The first instalment, Heat, premiered at Bats Theatre in Wellington in 2008, powered by its own renewable energy setup. Alternative energy designer Marcus McShane said: ‘‘We are recycling old components and will run the show on what we have managed to save each day, with extremely tight power budgets – a scary thing during live performances.’’
Tickets are $25-$35 at circa.co.nz. There is a free Q&Asession with experts and scientists after the show on September 24. Contribute to the show’s Boosted campaign at boosted.org.nz/projects/hole-green-poweredantarctic-theatre.