A new piece of contemporary Australian performance by Elaine Acworth
Water Wars is a timely and darkly funny exploration of what happens between neighbours as the drought gets longer and tougher and then gets renamed as a ‘dry’.
Set just in the future – when our communities face on-going water scarcity – Water Wars charts the bumpy road of neighbourliness as tempers fray and niggles turn into frank discussions, that turn into skirmishes, that grow into outright war.
My friend Nick is the executive producer of Water Wars, a new play written by his partner Elaine. I’m very much looking forward to seeing it on Thursday 11 August, along with a whole lot of my cycling friends.
One of the very very interesting things that has come out of the Water Wars process for Nick and Elaine and their crew is about sustainability in construction of their set and running the lights for the production. Nick has a fascinating post on the Water Wars blog about it, so to get the full gist, go read.
So theatre has to begin to consider responsible use of resources. That’s a good thing for sure. And of course there’s implications for all of us who believe that our actions are important for the current and future health of the planet.
Sustainability and cycling. That’s a pretty big topic, and one that I will take a while to get my head around. If you want a sardonic and entertaining take on it, there’s always BikeSnobNYC : Re-thinking Smugness, Steel is the New Bamboo. I mean there’s no doubt that riding my bike instead of driving a car is a net benefit for both the planet as well as me personally. But is the use of resources in making the fancy bikes that I ride sustainable? Hmm.
Sustainability and eating. Food miles, the unsustainability of eating meat, etc etc. There’s plenty of food for thought (groan) there.
I think we have barely begun to scratch the surface of what it will mean to live sustainably in our Australian context. Changes for the better, I hope.