Climate Theatre - Ecology and Performance in a Climate Emergency

Climate Theatre examines how distressed environments are portrayed through theatrical and performance arts.
Despite variations in form and location, the volume unites diverse geographical settings through their shared concern with the effects of rising temperatures on land, sea, sky, and beyond. Throughout history, theatre and performance have mirrored society's most pressing moral, ethical, and sociopolitical challenges. Today, various performance traditions-from ritual practices to cultural activism and historical reenactments-are being reassessed for their environmental resilience and ecological consciousness. The collection also showcases innovative contemporary works that position climate as a dynamic and meaningful presence within drama, performance, activism, and art. These contributions reflect the global nature of climate challenges while carefully articulating the nuanced perspectives emerging from different geographical contexts.
This volume will particularly appeal to performance scholars, environmental humanities researchers, climate activists, theatre practitioners, and students seeking to understand the intersection of artistic expression and ecological crisis in our rapidly changing world.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Introduction
Chapter 1. Climate Theatre:
Thinking about climate and performance
Chapter 2. AnthropoScenes on Campus: Ecospheric Knowledge Production, by Una Chaudhuri
Chapter 3. Theatre and Climate Change: Constellating a New Lexicon by Minty Donald and Carl Lavery
Chapter 4. Hope and Trust in the Future: Human to Nonhuman in Australian Drama by Peta Tait
Provocations in the Anthropocene: More-than-human
Chapter 5. The Sea is on Fire: Machinic Crustaceans and Ecological Promises by Jen Parker-Starbuck
Chapter 6. Being Prey at the End of the World: Kris Verdonck in Conversation with Lara Stevens about his latest work, PREY (2023) by Kris Verdonck and Lara Steven
by Sarah Lucie
Chapter 8. Performing lunar climates by Felipe Cervera
Chapter 9. Re-staging Cabinets of Curiosities in the Age of Anthropocene by Cen Liu
Environmental violence and inequity
Chapter 10. Slow Violence in Cherríe Moraga's Heroes and Saints by Elin Diamond
Chapter 11. Urban Ecologies in Performance: from Colonialism to Community in Peter Morin's Cultural Graffiti and Fast Familiar's The Strategy Room by Lisa Woynarski
Chapter 12. Mutating Performance: On Monira Al Qadiri's Speculative Petroaesthetics by Katia Arfara
Climate risk, activism & eco-performance
Chapter 13. Performing Fading: Postvisual Dramaturgy in Durational Catastrophes by Kyoko Iwaki
Chapter 14. Performing Across Time: Jill Orr in Conversation with Peta Tait by Jill Orr and Peta Tait
Chapter 15. Dramaturgy for Community Renewal and Environmental Care by Linda Hassall
Chapter 16. Performing climate activism by Deborah Hart
Chapter 17. Wilderness Acts: Dorothy Molter and Performing the Boundary Waters by Eero Laine
Culture, community & survival
Chapter 18. Hyphenated Thinking in Performance-Pedagogical Prototypes: Maria Lucia Correia's Common Dreams Flotation School and Natural Contract Lab by Christel Stalpaer
's Climate: Eco-utopic Confluences and Contradictions by Sarah Ann Standing
Chapter 20. Tacuabé's Bow: Surviving through Absence by Maria Litvan
The recalcitrant politics of climate change
Chapter 21. Climate Control: Gender, Nature, and Stories of the Snow Queen by Clara Wilch
Chapter 22. It doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. But it doesn't matter that it doesn't work': David Finnigan's Dramaturgy of Errors by Milo Harries
Chapter 23. Just and sustainable futures: How will we do it? by Anitra Nelson
Index

About the author

Denise Varney is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne
Peter Eckersall is the Sidney E. Cohn Professor in Theatre at the Graduate Center, CUNY, NY
Jen Parker-Starbuck is Professor of Theatre and Performance at Royal Holloway, University of London

Product details

• Authors: Denise Eckersall Varney
• Assisted by: Eckersall Peter (Editor), Jen Parker-Starbuck (Editor), Varney Denise (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 24.11.2025
• EAN: 9781032953458
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3295345-8
• No. of pages: 248
• Series: Routledge Studies in Theatre, Ecology, and Performance
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology > Ecology; NATURE / Ecology, PERFORMING ARTS / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism, Applied ecology, Theatre Studies, Performance Art, Theatre and Ecology;Environmental Humanities