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Treading The Boards: The Water Crisis Takes Centre Stage
The water crisis is a complicated one to address as, although it is a global emergency and all countries will feel the effects of it sooner or later, different regions have different issues that need to be tackled and there is no one size fits all approach to the problem at large.
Because the problem is such a nuanced one, working collaboratively is a must between government, local government, non-government organisations, corporations, businesses and the general public… and, to this end, raising awareness and driving support and understanding across the board is now becoming increasingly important.
This can be done in a myriad different ways, whether that’s through a water campaign dedicated to a single issue, providing the public with access to information, product labelling and environmental certification, citizen science programmes… or even art and culture.
Providing information and knowledge is absolutely key to raising awareness so that people can make informed decisions – and it’s certainly interesting to see that one source of information on the water crisis appears to be none other than the worldwide stage.
All sorts of theatre productions have been springing up here, there and everywhere that deal with water stress and scarcity in some respect or other. Here, we take a look at some of the recent offerings from theatre companies around the world and the issues they’re delving into.
Isingqala Samanzi/The Call of Water
The African premiere of The Call of Water just took place at The Baxter Flipside between September 22nd and 24th, following the world premiere at the Augsburg State Theatre in German.
This particular play focuses on global water scarcity, with the story centring around the world-famous fountain figures that can be found in the Augustus Fountain in Augsburg, who meet Inkomo Yamanzi (the cow that brings the water), while Roman deities meet ancestor worship.
As The Baxter Theatre writes: “Through a fascinating and poetic interweaving of play styles, languages and perspectives, a global picture of the problem of water scarcity emerges that allows us to look at a global problem from a different point of view.”
Encouraging an interest in the environment and conservation from a young age can really help engender positive eco-focused habits in the future – and the good news is that there are also theatre shows out there targeting children and young people.
Gulp!, for example, tells the tale of Maya, who loves water and swimming, but accidentally gets sucked up the bathroom tap and whisked off through the pipe network. She makes her way through rivers and seas, coming across all sorts of unexpected villains as she discovers more about the beauty and the challenges of water.
It’s the brainchild of The Bone Ensemble, a group that combines music and theatrical inventiveness with strong storytelling to deepen understanding, make connections and help drive action.
The collaboration includes theatremakers, academics, experts, partners and audience members to create an eclectic mix of productions that work for all ages.
The premiere of Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s Afro-surrealist play Cullud Wattah took place on November 2nd at The Public Theater in New York, focusing on three generations of black women living through the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
The synopsis reads: “ It’s been 936 days since Flint has had clean water. Marion, a third-generation General Motors employee, is consumed by layoffs at the engine plant.
“When her sister, Ainee, seeks justice and restitution for lead poisoning, her plan reveals the toxic entanglements between the city and its most powerful industry, forcing their family to confront the past-present-future cost of survival.
“As lead seeps into their home and their bodies, corrosive memories and secrets rise among them. Will this family ever be able to filter out the truth?”
Of course, it’s not just theatres that have been tackling this particular crisis and there are films and documentaries out there as well, covering the subject matter. Bigger Than Water, for example, features the stories of Flint residents who are still fighting for the safety of their community.
And the documentary Flint charts what happened after April 25th 2014, when Michigan governor Rick Snyder made the decision to switch the water supply from the Great Lakes to the Flint River which, unfortunately, was polluted and corrosive… and which hadn’t been used for drinking water for 50 years.
London is the setting this time for SALT, the tale of one Alan Powell, a Lewisham MP who’s embroiled in a fight to save the city in the middle of a water emergency and political maelstrom. Upon his untimely death, his three daughters have to simultaneously deal with their grief, their father’s legacy and the ever-pressing water shortage in London.
The play itself was strongly inspired by the water crisis in Cape Town in 2018, when the city was just a matter of days away from running out of water… but it’s important to note that England, too, is expected to see similar problems in the relatively near future, with experts predicting that England will see access to drinkable water lost within the next 25 years.
Water Wars is the latest play to pour forth from the pen of award-winning Welsh dramatist Ian Rowlands. It’s often said these days that the next big war will be fought over water and this new eco-thriller considers the consequences of environmental stress and what will likely happen in the face of increasingly scarce resources.
The play is set in Wales, where the powers that be are fully primed to cut the water pipelines that connect to England in a bid to save the country’s own ecology.
Given the recent heatwave that we saw this summer, this perhaps doesn’t seem as strange a reality to be confronted with, after all, with the south-east of England already facing serious water stress and scarcity issues.
Do you want to find out why water efficiency is so important? Get in touch with the team here at H2o Building Services today.