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 Earth has 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 Inverness was presented in Umeå and Skellefteå in 2009; Ulla Karlsson designed Dogstar’s 2010 production Jacobite Country; Dogstar’s production Factor 9 opened 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!