Theatre

Join us as world-class scholars, theatre artists and musicians blend art and science to explore Earth’s past and fragile future. UBC, The Only Animal Theatre Society and Science World are celebrating Earth Day 2020 with a multi-modal mix of short TED-style talks, plays drawn from the Climate Change Theatre Action repertoire, and an excerpt of the newly commissioned Earth Symphony.

Working in cross-sector partnerships in order to bring imagination, vision and heart of artists into the climate narrative in order to mobilize a society paralyzed by climate anxiety and grief.

Everyone is affected by climate crisis. But those under 25 are known as Generation Hot, because their entire lives will be shaped by global warming. Global youth protest is the new face of the climate movement.

Year of the Typewriter responds to a challenge by ecology writer Paul Kingsnorth to cast landscape as the lead character in stories. 

We aim to change the world in 75 words a minute, ding! Typing Pool is an audience-immersive experience in translating the narrative of place. It is imagined for citified wildernesses of all description. You,our audience, are recruited as the Typing Pool and provided with tools for dictation. Before you is a story writ in landscape--it could be the harbor and woods, a cloudscape, a garbage barge, a stream of humanity, or fabulously priced harbour-front real estate.

Museum of Rain our next large-scale, elemental and impossible, site-specific work. A water-based installation that is physical, immersive and performative. One’s relationship with rain is undeniable for the rainforest dwellers. This narrative piece explores the ephemeral beauty, the exhilaration, and the meaning we can find in the downpour. Get your raingear on. It’s a theatrical deluge.

The Only Animal is known for it’s imaginative locales, creating theatre in swimming pools, in a theatre of snow and ice, and on False Creek. Their new offering, Nothing But Sky, takes place inside a live drawing with the story of the Canadian who first drew Superman.

A sample from the script: "When I had my son, I remember walking sorta stunned into the city and seeing the people and thinking, “O God, all of us were BORN, every single one of us, that is how we all got here. There is no other way.”

Everyone is affected by the climate crisis. But those under 25 are known as Generation Hot, because their entire lives will be shaped by global warming. What can any one of them (or us) do on this most critical issue?  The Only Animal created Greenlight as a way to move seven young creators from overwhelm into action. Will you meet them there?

We created a strangely affecting, fairly bizarre portrait of American extremism using found text, the characters and staging from "Forrest Gump" and a whole lot of Crazy Ideas (realized with the help of some beautiful friends).

Adapted from author China Miéville’s multi-award winning novel, The City and The City is a highly participatory theatrical experience; equal parts dystopic science fiction, film noir, and murder mystery. Using emergent audio technology, the audience receives clues for actions, text and characterization to bring the story to life in real time.

Produced by The Only Animal with PHS Community Services. Out On A Limb.  Stories about growing up and growing older. Community members relate coming of age and turning points in life.