Two Birds Theatre is developing Apocalypse Play for performance in an urban park. It’s a serious comedy for terrifying times, an intergenerational auto-fictional collaboration about climate anxiety, grief and the legacy of arts activism and motherhood, created and performed by mother/daughter feminist theatre artists Natasha Greenblatt and Kate Lushington. Originally sparked by Natasha’s desire to interrogate her mother Kate’s satirical anti-nuclear performance pieces from the 1980’s (when she herself was born), this history has become especially potent now that Natasha is having her own child. Is it possible to make art and find connection, courage and community in the face of a precarious global future?
Natasha’s previous plays include The Peacemaker, The Election, co-written with indigenous playwright Yolanda Bonnell, and Two Birds One Stone, co-written with Palestinian playwright Rimah Jabr. Kate is a veteran political theatre maker, Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre in the 90’s, a writer and arts educator. The creative team for Apocalypse Play includes innovative artists based in Toronto/Tkaronto from different cultural backgrounds and generations: pioneering founder of b current performing arts ahdri zhina mandiela as director, with veteran production designer Astrid Janson, composer and musician Alejandra Nuñez as sound designer, second generation theatre maker Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman as text dramaturg, and third generation Indigenous theatre creator/performer Monique Mojica as embodied dramaturg.
Apocalypse Play is performed outdoors with a set created mainly from reused or recycled materials which becomes an art installation before and after the show. In partnership with Balancing Act/Theatre Direct there will also be integrated animated childcare for each performance – while caregivers watch the show, kids will be invited to work on art projects that relate to the climate themes. A troupe of community youth dancers join the finale, and the show will be filmed for future sharing and conversation. Co-produced with Common Boots Theatre.
