This time last week,
Edinburgh-based site specific experts Grid Iron were strictly
earth-bound. Rehearsals for their Edinburgh International Festival
contribution, Leaving Planet Earth, were taking place in a former
Morningside church which has been converted into a drama studio. As
of this weekend past, however, the company have blasted off to
Edinburgh International Climbing Centre in Ratho, which doubles up as
New Earth in director Catrin Evans and writer Lewis Hetherington's
new play.
The play casts the
audience as the final new arrivals from Old Earth, which has been
decreed no longer a viable place to live. With mass migration into
space seemingly the only alternative, the umbilical cord to the old
planet is about to be cut. In its place, the idyllic dawn of a brave
new world. Or is it?
Such scenarios have
long been the stuff of science-fiction literature and film, from
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World to hippy sci-fi films such as Silent
Running. On stage, however, outside of Ken Campbell's epic 1970s take
on Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's the Illuminatus Trilogy and
Tom McGrath's little seen 1978 play, The Android Circuit, sci-fi has
rarely had any major impact until now.
Unlike much
science-fiction, however, there is no apocalyptic scenario In Leaving
Planet Earth. Nor is the landscape a dystopian one. What there is in
terms of production, at least, is a fully immersive experience for
the audience, who must explore their new home even as they consider
why they are there.
“Old Earth is in its
final stages of life,” says Evans. “It's finished, chaos is
reigning, and people are choosing to leave. What we aren't doing is
transporting people to the future. It's 2013, but it's an alternative
2013. We've been working on a film which places the new arrivals in
the context of where we are in this alternative 2013, and then the
audience take a leap onto New Earth, which is where things happen.”
The roots of Leaving
Planet Earth date back to January 2010, when Evans read an article by
writer and environmental activist, George Monbiot.
“It gestured towards
the notion that in a consumerist society like the one we live in,
that we're always trying to buy our way out of trouble,” says
Hetherington, “and that we think that we're so clever we can solve
any problem by buying it, and that we must keep growing to keep on
consuming. The language used was all about economic growth, and
Monbiot gestured towards this notion that the Earth could become this
ultimate disposable item.”
This inspired Evans to
think about applying Monbiot's notions to a theatre show.
“At that point I just
wanted to explore something about humanity's first migration into
space,” she says. “I was always interested more in a migration
rather than anything apocalyptic or the world coming to an end after
a meteorite hits the Earth. It wasn't about that. It was about
choices, and choosing to leave something behind, so I wanted to
discover what story was going to be.”
Hetherington and Evans
had already been talking about collaborating on something, while
Evans had worked with Grid Iron as assistant director, both on the
company's pub-set Charles Bukowski compendium, Barflies, and on the
swing-park set Decky Does A Bronco. When Grid Iron first approached
Evans to propose a project of her own, Evans in turn contacted
Hetherington with her idea.
“The idea of it being
science-fiction influence came in quite quickly and quite
organically,” says Hetherington, “because we were talking about a
migration into space, and then we got some actors in a room to see
how the characters and story developed.
Evans points out that
“We only had two characters in mind at that stage, but we didn't
know what their story would be.”
“We're both very
passionate about science fiction anyway,” says Hetherington, “and
we very quickly got into discussions about what science-fiction,
what is fantasy science-fiction and everything else that goes with
it. We wanted to embrace all of that, but at the same time ground
things in very human stories.”
This is what all good
science-fiction has done, be it in H.G. Wells' novels, or Ray
Bradbury's short stories, which sometimes aren't recognisable as
science-fiction at all.
“One of the best
things about science-fiction,” Evans observes, “is the clues that
it gives you. You can read something and not know what it means, then
a hundred pages later it all clicks into place.”
In the early stages of
development, a more intimate approach was mooted, with the idea of
just one performer in an attic observatory playing to an audience of
ten.
“Then we saw the site
at Ratho,” says Hetherington, “and it just spoke to us.”
As with all
science-fiction, Leaving Planet Earth sounds a bit closer to home
than it at first appears.
“One of the things
we're interested in is the idea of living in an opt-in society,”says
Evans. “That's why we didn't want to set the play in a dystopian
society. These people who've left earth believe that what they're
doing is right, and whether people agree with that or not is a
different matter, but when the dilemmas on stage are real personal
decisions, that's when things become interesting.”
Hetherington is more
succinct.
“We're interested in
putting a lens on now.”
Leaving Planet Earth
begins at Edinburgh International Conference Centre and continues at
the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, Ratho, August 10th-24th,
8pm.
The Herald, August 12th 2013
ends
Comments