‘A Lightning Tour of the Planet”
Last year David Finnigan asked thirty scientists “What is the most important change happening in the world today? Their resulting answers are brought to us in the form of Your Safe Til 2024, playing Thursday April 26 and Friday April 27 as part of Batch Festival at Griffin Theatre.
I spoke to David about what’s in store for the audience and quite like the sound of a “lo-fi documentary” crossed with a ‘Broadway musical done with two people”…
I really love the idea of this show, in that it merges science with theatre… that you actually worked with real scientists in developing the performance… and that it’s in a sense non fiction … so here’s my question, do you see this work as Political Theatre?
The show is totally non-fiction! But it’s not political – it’s actually very personal. I asked 30 different scientists one question: ‘What’s the biggest change happening in the world today?’
The answers I received went in many different directions. Some scientists told me about how whale songs have lowered in pitch over the last 30 years, or showed me sand that has been fused into glass near Australian nuclear test sites, or told me stories of geese being sucked into the engines of planes.
Weaving all these stories together into a performance has revealed a lot about the huge changes happening to the planet – and yeah, there’s a political dimension to that, but what it brought up for me was the more personal stuff: how does it feel to be living on the planet in the midst of these huge changes, at this strange moment in human history?
What form does the performance take? What can the audience expect?
It’s a little bit like a lo-fi documentary, with me telling stories and musician Reuben Ingall weaving in live music and soundscapes.
But it’s ALSO a little bit like a high-energy Broadway musical done with two people. And YES that means music, costumes, action sequences, romance, drama and spectacle. All of it.
What has been your major “take away” from developing this piece? Whether it’s been a creative realisation, a revelation about the subject etc… what did you as the creator get from this?
I learned a lot from speaking with all these different scientists about how scientists are feeling in this moment in time. What’s it like to be a planetary scientist at the moment the planet is changing so radically. Not just that, but the very technology we’re using to study the world is also contributing to changing it. For scientists, studying planetary change is not just a job, it’s an emotional experience.
But what scientists feel acutely, I think we’re all experiencing to some degree. It’s a scary, confusing, exciting and troubling time for us all, and I think everyone feels anxious and concerned about what’s happening. So part of what I wanted to learn was: what can scientists teach us about how to cope, emotionally, with all this change.
The other big takeaway was this: I asked each scientist to select one song for the soundtrack, one piece of music that gets them excited and fired up. So the soundtrack for the show is exclusively scientist-selected. So I learned a lot about scientists’ taste in music*. And the audience is going to learn that too.
*Alanis Morissette
Developing new work is often very intensive and a labour of love… did you face many hurdles or challenges creating You’re Safe Till 2024? If so what?
The most difficult thing was deciding which scientists’ stories I couldn’t tell. The show is a crisp 60 minutes (well, 57 minutes in the last rehearsal) and there’s only so much you can say in that time. So I had to whittle the stories down to the few that I think are most important / exciting / hilarious – that was heartbreaking, as it always is.
Your Safe Til 2024 is playing April 26 and 27 at 7pm as part of Batch Festival
You can get tickets here https://griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/youre-safe-till-2024/
Martina Breen, Theatre Now
