LET'S INHERIT THE EARTH by Morna Pearson
Co-produced with Profilteatern of Umeå, Sweden
2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Touring Scotland & Sweden
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE !
vimeo.com/299926029
"Quite simply, a show and a half… combines hilarity with devastating political satire …one of the most anarchic, timely and memorable shows on the Fringe.”
Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman ****
“Succeeds by dramatizing the human consequences of global warming"
Edinburgh Festivals Magazine *****
“An enjoyable, vibrant production…a rowdy piece of popular theatre by Morna Pearson accompanied by an exceptionally catchy, original pop-punk score by Jonny Hardie.” Broadway World ****
“A boisterous romp of a production…punchy, powerful…vigorous, tightly choreographed direction…the best opening tableau you’ll see this Fringe…this production couldn’t be more timely” Claire Wood, The Wee Review ****
“…laughs, ingenious design, great punk songs and lots to make you think…”
Inverness Courier *****
Jan Karlsson Lukas, Viktor Karré, Prepper, Turtle
Sarah McCardie Jane, Freya Mucklefanny, Turtle
Tobias Morin Sigge, Josef, Prepper, Turtle
Lina Hognert Sofie Karré, Tuva, Grandmother
Matthew Zajac Grant, Michael Mucklefanny
Ben Harrison Director
Ulla Karlsson Set & Costume Design
Jonny Hardie Composer/Musical Director/Sound Design
Brian McAlpine Song arrangements & producer
Martin Ogland Lighting Design, Video Effects
& Production Management
Katy Steele Deputy & Technical Stage Manager
& Supertitling
Eric Morel Stage Manager
Jacob Petersson Prop & Mask Maker, Set Construction
All songs are sung by the cast
Lyrics by Morna Pearson, Matthew Zajac & Ben Harrison
Photo montage Joakim Lindquist
Photography Joakim Lindquist & Laurence Winram
Graphic Design Emma Quinn
Press consultant Liz Smith
Video & Translation Patrik Ågren
Trailer & Archive Recording Jonathan Ley
Producers Donna Macrae, Patrik Ågren, Matthew Zajac & Elin Larsson Assistant Producer Dogstar Lara McDonald
Education Programme
Leader Nicola Gray, Eden Court Creative
The first performance of Let’s Inherit The Earth was on 10 August 2018 at The Pleasance Courtyard (Forth) Edinburgh. Co-produced in Sweden & Scotland by Profilteatern and Dogstar.
Let’s Inherit The Earth is supported by Creative Scotland, the Swedish Arts Council, Vasterbotten Region, Umeå Kommun & Eden Court Theatre Inverness
Following a theatre exchange in 2005-6 between Highland theatre makers and two companies from northern Sweden, Vasterbottensteatern and Profilteatern, Dogstar developed a number of collaborations. These included The Tailor of Inverness at the inaugural Skellefteå International Storytelling Festival in 2009, Ulla Karlsson designing Dogstar's 2010 production by Henry Adam, Jacobite Country and the opening of Factor 9 at Profilteatern's Festival of Horror & Art during the 2014 Umeå European Capital of Culture events. Let's Inherit The Earth is the first full co-production resulting from this continuing relationship.
Let’s Inherit The Earth is Pearson’s dark, funny, absurdist satire on human responses to climate change, from the arch materialists who deny it, to the preppers obsessed with getting ready for it, come hell or high water !
It’s 2031. Adele has just hit number one with her new album, 43.
Somewhere in the Caribbean, three turtles are staring in disbelief and helplessness at the expanding patch of seaweed which threatens to destroy their habitat. The seaweed spreads towards luxury beach-front condominiums, owned by the super-rich Mucklefannys of the Highlands and the Karrés of Sweden. Their concern is the threat to the value of their properties and the quality of their cocktails.
In Moray, Jane and Grant have stocked up on weaponry, an inflatable canoe and Marmite in case of an “event”. Sure enough, the North Sea floods in and the geography of northern Europe is transformed.
The forests of Sweden are on fire. Josef, Tove and their child Lukas are frantically packing as the fire approaches. Lukas asks about granny stuck upstairs. She’s not really a cockroach like daddy says, is she ?
The refugees from the fire and the flood meet in the wilderness, unsure of what country they are actually in. No sign of granny.
The turtles swim for safety as the condo owners metamorphose and bake, welcoming the sea lapping at their balconies - saves them the walk to the beach. What’s a turtle’s favourite cocktail ?
Writer’s note – Morna Pearson
What would the world be without any people? Paradise? That’s what I came to wonder several times during the research for this show. Yet in all the despair, I wanted to find some hope.
When Matthew Zajac asked if I wanted to write a comedic play related to climate change I jumped at the chance. However, although excited by the prospect, it also made me nervous. Where to start with the research? Where to stop and let my imagination take over? Where to find the laughs in such a serious subject?
Indeed, at the start of the collaborative process, one of the first things we did as a company was to list the ways we personally contribute to climate change – a sobering task – and we surrounded ourselves with articles and pictures of drowning communities, suffocating sea turtles, and emaciated polar bears. But it was in the exploration of climate change denial that helped me tap into the comedy potential of the subject and decide that the tone should reflect the absurdity of the denier’s arguments.
Right in the middle of the development of this piece Brexit happened. It was impossible not to contemplate how this might affect action on climate change and our relationships with our European neighbours.
This has been a project of firsts for me. First international collaboration, first production at the Fringe Festival, and first lyric writing (with the help of Matthew, Ben and Jonny!). It has been a joy to work with such a talented, imaginative and generous group of people. I hope you enjoy the show!
Director’s Note- Ben Harrison
Brecht once said that a theatre not to be laughed in is a theatre to be laughed at. Climate change, without doubt the most serious of all challenges the world has to deal with, is perhaps best served in the theatre by a kind of grotesque laughter, and a gross playing style to match the horror in recent stories of whales beached with their bellies cut open to reveal a mountain of plastic, the fires in Greece, Sweden and North America and even our stunning Scottish summer which so many of us are so grateful for. All these events have their origins in global warming and over-production.
When we were planning this co-production three years ago, I read an article about the sargassum seaweed which had broken off its huge rotating island in the centre of the Atlantic and had drifted towards the white sands and luxury condominiums of the Caribbean islands. The seaweed was brown and ugly and smelly and played host to a variety of vicious biting insects. Paradise had been turned into hell. It was the first news story I had read where climate change was directly affecting the lives of the rich, normally cocooned in penthouses and business class flights and chauffeured limos, and burning up the planet like the best of us. Many are familiar with the fate of the Marshall Islands, nearly under sea now and so passionately argued for by the delegation at the Paris Summit; the constant flooding in Bangladesh; the wildfires in California and Australia, but here, climate change had landed at the sandaled feet of the super-rich.
At the same time Morna Pearson was becoming intrigued by the prepper movement, an entire subculture who know the apocalypse is coming and want to be prepared for it (and make a profit from it). We were also very conscious that we were co-producing with Profilteatern from Sweden who were wanting to make a trilogy of works about the environment of which Let’s Inherit the Earthhas become one third. And that we were making the show in Sweden, a country with one of the best environmental records on earth, pioneers in the use of wind and wave technology and the use of fully electric cars and solar powered houses. It’s a rich seam to mine, but beneath the laughter, there is sadness and horror at what we have done to ourselves. As Granny in the play says:
‘When we said we wanted what’s best for the children- we meant our children, not all children. Our compassion was selective and conditional. Perhaps it wasn’t compassion at all. Fairness and community were always an option, yet we chose neither.’
Profilteatern & Dogstar
Profilteatern is an independent theatre company founded in Umeå in northern Sweden in 1984. It runs on a collective basis and currently has seven permanent members and a large theatre building in a business park which was once an army base. Dogstar is a project-funded theatre company based in the Scottish Highlands, producing new touring theatre since 1999. Members of the two companies met during a Scottish-Swedish theatre exchange which took place in Ullapool, Inverness, Umeå & Skellefteå in 2006. Several collaborations have taken place since: Dogstar’s The Tailor of Invernesswas presented in Umeå and Skellefteå in 2009; Ulla Karlsson designed Dogstar’s 2010 production Jacobite Country; Dogstar’s production Factor 9opened at Profilteatern as part of Umeå’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2014.
Both companies are committed to producing entertaining new work which engages audiences in ideas and issues which affect our lives and the wider world. We hope Let’s Inherit The Earth achieves that. The play was written following a week-long development workshop in Umeå in January 2016. The first draft received a public reading and workshop at Eden Court in Inverness in December 2016 and rewrites and production fundraising and planning took place in 2017. Rehearsals took place in Umeå in June this year.
Some words from Profilteatern:
This project is the result of a long friendship with Dogstar Theatre Company. We invited Dogstar to produce a show for our horror theatre festival, part of the programme for the European Capital of Culture in 2014. The result was Factor 9 which furthered our desire to co-produce a show with Dogstar and that same year the first steps were taken for this. And now, 4 years later, here we are. Let's Inherit the Earth is Profilteatern’s first international co-production and our Fringe debut. We couldn't be more proud!
Sarah McCardie Jane, Freya Mucklefanny, Turtle
Tobias Morin Sigge, Josef, Prepper, Turtle
Lina Hognert Sofie Karré, Tuva, Grandmother
Matthew Zajac Grant, Michael Mucklefanny
Ben Harrison Director
Ulla Karlsson Set & Costume Design
Jonny Hardie Composer/Musical Director/Sound Design
Brian McAlpine Song arrangements & producer
Martin Ogland Lighting Design, Video Effects
& Production Management
Katy Steele Deputy & Technical Stage Manager
& Supertitling
Eric Morel Stage Manager
Jacob Petersson Prop & Mask Maker, Set Construction
All songs are sung by the cast
Lyrics by Morna Pearson, Matthew Zajac & Ben Harrison
Photo montage Joakim Lindquist
Photography Joakim Lindquist & Laurence Winram
Graphic Design Emma Quinn
Press consultant Liz Smith
Video & Translation Patrik Ågren
Trailer & Archive Recording Jonathan Ley
Producers Donna Macrae, Patrik Ågren, Matthew Zajac & Elin Larsson Assistant Producer Dogstar Lara McDonald
Education Programme
Leader Nicola Gray, Eden Court Creative
The first performance of Let’s Inherit The Earth was on 10 August 2018 at The Pleasance Courtyard (Forth) Edinburgh. Co-produced in Sweden & Scotland by Profilteatern and Dogstar.
Let’s Inherit The Earth is supported by Creative Scotland, the Swedish Arts Council, Vasterbotten Region, Umeå Kommun & Eden Court Theatre Inverness
Following a theatre exchange in 2005-6 between Highland theatre makers and two companies from northern Sweden, Vasterbottensteatern and Profilteatern, Dogstar developed a number of collaborations. These included The Tailor of Inverness at the inaugural Skellefteå International Storytelling Festival in 2009, Ulla Karlsson designing Dogstar's 2010 production by Henry Adam, Jacobite Country and the opening of Factor 9 at Profilteatern's Festival of Horror & Art during the 2014 Umeå European Capital of Culture events. Let's Inherit The Earth is the first full co-production resulting from this continuing relationship.
Let’s Inherit The Earth is Pearson’s dark, funny, absurdist satire on human responses to climate change, from the arch materialists who deny it, to the preppers obsessed with getting ready for it, come hell or high water !
It’s 2031. Adele has just hit number one with her new album, 43.
Somewhere in the Caribbean, three turtles are staring in disbelief and helplessness at the expanding patch of seaweed which threatens to destroy their habitat. The seaweed spreads towards luxury beach-front condominiums, owned by the super-rich Mucklefannys of the Highlands and the Karrés of Sweden. Their concern is the threat to the value of their properties and the quality of their cocktails.
In Moray, Jane and Grant have stocked up on weaponry, an inflatable canoe and Marmite in case of an “event”. Sure enough, the North Sea floods in and the geography of northern Europe is transformed.
The forests of Sweden are on fire. Josef, Tove and their child Lukas are frantically packing as the fire approaches. Lukas asks about granny stuck upstairs. She’s not really a cockroach like daddy says, is she ?
The refugees from the fire and the flood meet in the wilderness, unsure of what country they are actually in. No sign of granny.
The turtles swim for safety as the condo owners metamorphose and bake, welcoming the sea lapping at their balconies - saves them the walk to the beach. What’s a turtle’s favourite cocktail ?
Writer’s note – Morna Pearson
What would the world be without any people? Paradise? That’s what I came to wonder several times during the research for this show. Yet in all the despair, I wanted to find some hope.
When Matthew Zajac asked if I wanted to write a comedic play related to climate change I jumped at the chance. However, although excited by the prospect, it also made me nervous. Where to start with the research? Where to stop and let my imagination take over? Where to find the laughs in such a serious subject?
Indeed, at the start of the collaborative process, one of the first things we did as a company was to list the ways we personally contribute to climate change – a sobering task – and we surrounded ourselves with articles and pictures of drowning communities, suffocating sea turtles, and emaciated polar bears. But it was in the exploration of climate change denial that helped me tap into the comedy potential of the subject and decide that the tone should reflect the absurdity of the denier’s arguments.
Right in the middle of the development of this piece Brexit happened. It was impossible not to contemplate how this might affect action on climate change and our relationships with our European neighbours.
This has been a project of firsts for me. First international collaboration, first production at the Fringe Festival, and first lyric writing (with the help of Matthew, Ben and Jonny!). It has been a joy to work with such a talented, imaginative and generous group of people. I hope you enjoy the show!
Director’s Note- Ben Harrison
Brecht once said that a theatre not to be laughed in is a theatre to be laughed at. Climate change, without doubt the most serious of all challenges the world has to deal with, is perhaps best served in the theatre by a kind of grotesque laughter, and a gross playing style to match the horror in recent stories of whales beached with their bellies cut open to reveal a mountain of plastic, the fires in Greece, Sweden and North America and even our stunning Scottish summer which so many of us are so grateful for. All these events have their origins in global warming and over-production.
When we were planning this co-production three years ago, I read an article about the sargassum seaweed which had broken off its huge rotating island in the centre of the Atlantic and had drifted towards the white sands and luxury condominiums of the Caribbean islands. The seaweed was brown and ugly and smelly and played host to a variety of vicious biting insects. Paradise had been turned into hell. It was the first news story I had read where climate change was directly affecting the lives of the rich, normally cocooned in penthouses and business class flights and chauffeured limos, and burning up the planet like the best of us. Many are familiar with the fate of the Marshall Islands, nearly under sea now and so passionately argued for by the delegation at the Paris Summit; the constant flooding in Bangladesh; the wildfires in California and Australia, but here, climate change had landed at the sandaled feet of the super-rich.
At the same time Morna Pearson was becoming intrigued by the prepper movement, an entire subculture who know the apocalypse is coming and want to be prepared for it (and make a profit from it). We were also very conscious that we were co-producing with Profilteatern from Sweden who were wanting to make a trilogy of works about the environment of which Let’s Inherit the Earthhas become one third. And that we were making the show in Sweden, a country with one of the best environmental records on earth, pioneers in the use of wind and wave technology and the use of fully electric cars and solar powered houses. It’s a rich seam to mine, but beneath the laughter, there is sadness and horror at what we have done to ourselves. As Granny in the play says:
‘When we said we wanted what’s best for the children- we meant our children, not all children. Our compassion was selective and conditional. Perhaps it wasn’t compassion at all. Fairness and community were always an option, yet we chose neither.’
Profilteatern & Dogstar
Profilteatern is an independent theatre company founded in Umeå in northern Sweden in 1984. It runs on a collective basis and currently has seven permanent members and a large theatre building in a business park which was once an army base. Dogstar is a project-funded theatre company based in the Scottish Highlands, producing new touring theatre since 1999. Members of the two companies met during a Scottish-Swedish theatre exchange which took place in Ullapool, Inverness, Umeå & Skellefteå in 2006. Several collaborations have taken place since: Dogstar’s The Tailor of Invernesswas presented in Umeå and Skellefteå in 2009; Ulla Karlsson designed Dogstar’s 2010 production Jacobite Country; Dogstar’s production Factor 9opened at Profilteatern as part of Umeå’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2014.
Both companies are committed to producing entertaining new work which engages audiences in ideas and issues which affect our lives and the wider world. We hope Let’s Inherit The Earth achieves that. The play was written following a week-long development workshop in Umeå in January 2016. The first draft received a public reading and workshop at Eden Court in Inverness in December 2016 and rewrites and production fundraising and planning took place in 2017. Rehearsals took place in Umeå in June this year.
Some words from Profilteatern:
This project is the result of a long friendship with Dogstar Theatre Company. We invited Dogstar to produce a show for our horror theatre festival, part of the programme for the European Capital of Culture in 2014. The result was Factor 9 which furthered our desire to co-produce a show with Dogstar and that same year the first steps were taken for this. And now, 4 years later, here we are. Let's Inherit the Earth is Profilteatern’s first international co-production and our Fringe debut. We couldn't be more proud!
TOURING VENUES
SCOTLAND August 10-26 Edinburgh Festival Fringe at The Pleasance Courtyard (Forth) October 9 Carlops Village Hall, Borders 10 Glasgow Webster’s Theatre 11 Phoenix Centre, Newton Dee 12 Tullynessle & Forbes Hall, Aberdeenshire 13 Musselburgh Brunton Theatre, East Lothian 16 GairlochCommunity Hall, Wester Ross 17 Portree Aros Centre, Isle of Skye 18 Sleat, SEALL @ Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Isle of Skye 19 Durness Village Hall, Sutherland 24 Findhorn Universal Hall, Moray 25 Birnam Arts Centre, Perthshire 26 New Galloway Catstrand, Dumfries & Galloway 28 Aberdeen Lemon Tree Arts Centre 30 Inverness Eden Court 31 Inverness Eden Court (2 performances inc. schools matinee) November 1 Cumbernauld Theatre 2 Peebles Eastgate Theatre 3 Paisley Arts Centre SWEDEN 9-11 Umeå, Profilteatern 14 Luleå, Norrbottensteatern 16-17Stockholm Stadsteatern |
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