A small Terrapin contingent traveled to Nagoya this month to develop a new work with Japanese artists. Set in a possible future of rising seas and shrinking islands, it’s a work that demands climate-conscious treatment. The story will be told using objects found in any theatre – brooms, ladders, blocks – and the stuff of emergency response: tarps, heat blankets, rope, sacks of rice and ready-made meals. A handful of key objects will be specially made and transported, but the rest will be found in each venue, or purchased locally and then donated undamaged to a homeless shelter.
Designer Ayami Sasaki led a thoughtful process of object selection and placement. We waved our hands a lot and leant heavily on interpreter Kurono-san to convey nebulous, associative ideas. To deepen our understanding of the Japanese context for the work, the producer at Aichi Prefectural Theatre scheduled an extraordinary program of excursions: volunteering at a soup kitchen, visiting a disaster simulation centre, running a workshop with children in a migrant community, and touring a Peace Museum so little frequented by foreigners that they plan to write an article about our visit in their newsletter.
How We Found What We Had Lost is written by Finnegan Kruckemeyer and will premiere in 2025. Thanks for the photo, Sam Routledge.