Mind the (time) gap
Layered Temporalities in Climate Change Theatre
Abstract
According to Amitav Ghosh (2016), climate change constitutes also a “crisis of the imagination,” as it evades our grasp due to the vastness of its temporal frame. Any shifts in climatic patterns are measured in geological time, whose uncanniness makes it difficult for people to meaningfully relate to it. Hence, addressing the current crisis must start by finding ways of enhancing our imagination and capacity for understanding. It can be argued that the medium of theatre is uniquely suited to bringing unfamiliar timelines within the boundaries of a framed temporal experience, which enables juxtaposing different worlds and temporalities. Based on the example of two plays: 2071 by Christ Rapley and Duncan Macmillan, and Extinct by April De Angelis, the article examines the ways in which playwrights engaging with the topic of climate change explore the capacity of theatre for colliding various timelines in order to address the “crisis of imagination” that is currently barring audiences from fully grasping the implications of the ongoing changes.
References
Chakrabarty, D. (2009). The Climate of History: Four Theses. Critical Inquiry, no. 35(2), 197–222. DOI: 10.1086/596640.
Chakrabarty, D. (2021a). The Climate of History in a Planetary Age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chakrabarty, D. (2021b). The Chronopolitics of the Anthropocene: The Pandemic and Our Sense of Time. Contributions to Indian Sociology, no. 55(3), 324–348. DOI: 10.1177/00699667211065081.
Chang, A. (2021). Staging Climate Science: No Drama, Just the Facts. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, no. 43(1), 66–76. DOI: 10.1162/pajj_a_00547.
De Angelis, April. (2021). Extinct. London: Faber and Faber. Kindle edition.
Donn, R. (2014). Review Round-Ups: Royal Court’s 2071 Splits Critics. What’s on Stage, 10 November, https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/2071-round-up_36391.html/ [access: 8 December 2023].
Ghosh, A. (2016). The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hamilton, J. R. (2006). Understanding Plays. In: Eds. D. Krasner and D. Z. Saltz (eds.), Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theater, Performance, and Philosophy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 221–243.
Johns-Putra, A. (2019a). Climate Change and the Contemporary Novel, Cambridge—New York: Cambridge University Press.
Johns-Putra, A. (ed.) (2019b). Climate and Literature. Cambridge—New York: Cambridge University Press.
Love, C. (2020). From Facts to Feelings: The Development of Katie Mitchell’s Ecodramaturgy. Contemporary Theatre Review, no. 30(2), 226–235. DOI: 10.1080/10486801.2020.1731495.
Markley, R. (2012). Time, History, and Sustainability. In: T. Cohen (ed.), Telemorphosis: Theory in the Era of Climate Change, vol. 1. Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, 43–64.
Markley, R. (2019). Literature, Climate, and Time: Between History and Story. In: A. Johns-Putra (ed.), Climate and Literature. Cambridge—New York: Cambridge University Press.
Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. Minneapolis—London: University of Minnesota Press.
Rapley, C. and Macmillan, D. (2015). 2071: The World We’ll Leave Our Grandchildren. London: John Murray. Kindle edition.
Royal Court Theatre. (2014). 2071. https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/2071-2/ [access: 9 December 2023].
Wagner, M. D. (2012). Shakespeare, Theatre, and Time. Abingdon—New York: Routledge.
Wagner, M. (2018). Time and Theatre. In: T. M. Allen (ed.), Time and Literature. Cambridge—New York: Cambridge University Press, 57–71.
Wiles, D. (2014). Theatre and Time. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Kindle edition.
Copyright (c) 2024 Perspectives on Culture
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Autor, zgłaszając swój artykuł, wyraża zgodę na korzystanie przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersystet Ignatianum z utworu na następujących polach eksploatacji:
- utrwalania utworu w formie papierowej, a także na nośniku cyfrowym lub magnetycznym;
- zwielokrotnienia utworu dowolną techniką, bez ograniczenia ilości wydań i liczby egzemplarzy;
- rozpowszechniania utworu i jego zwielokrotnionych egzemplarzy na jakimkolwiek nośniku, w tym wprowadzenia do obrotu, sprzedaży, użyczenia, najmu;
- wprowadzenia utworu do pamięci komputera;
- rozpowszechniania utworu w sieciach informatycznych, w tym w sieci Internet;
- publicznego wykonania, wystawienia, wyświetlenia, odtworzenia oraz nadawania i reemitowania, a także publicznego udostępniania utworu w taki sposób, aby każdy mógł mieć do niego dostęp w miejscu i czasie przez siebie wybranym.
Wydawca zobowiązuje się szanować osobiste prawa autorskie do utworu.