“Cambiare il clima”: theatre and academia meet for a new narrative about climate change

Abstract

A collaboration between the Department of Environmental, Land and Infrastructure Engineering of Politecnico di Torino and the theatre group Faber Teater resulted in “Cambiare il clima” (Eng: Change the climate, trailer: https://youtu.be/3LTOE3wIoZM): a theatre play taking inspiration from research on climate change monitoring, adaptation and mitigation solutions carried out at Politecnico di Torino, to stimulate reflection on the phenomenon in a wide audience.The wide theme of climate-related consequences for humankind urges to enter into mainstream storytelling. For a long while, the narrative around climate change struggled to find its place in literature, cinema and other arts (see A. Gosh, The Great Derangement). This play attempts to create such a space by telling a story about what science can do about climate change and the importance to intertwine technological progress with economic and political decisions.The main challenge in creating the play was to communicate the exciting world of academic research, without giving up scientific rigor and to highlight the surprising common ground of science and theatre, namely their human, practical and even artisanal dimension. Towards this end, artists had to dive into science and engineering while researchers had to raise their awareness about how their work can stimulate emotions, which are key to deliver important messages to society, such as those related to climate change. The goal was to balance lightness, irony and drama, conveying urgency to the audience, without surrendering to sensationalism.The play was first performed in November 2020 at Politecnico di Torino during Biennale Tecnologia (an important event about technology, in Italy). Since then, it was repeated several times in festivals, events for science communication, schools, etc. It has also received two awards: (1) it was selected among the works published in the Climate ChanCe 2022 creative communication competition organised by Shylock - University Theatre Centre, Venice; (2) one of the videos composing the play won the "Future Earth" award of the Earth Futures Festival, an initiative promoted by UNESCO - International Geoscience Programme and the International Union of Geological Sciences in 2022.The presentation will include:- preferably an oral presentation, summarizing the process that led to the design of the play, the incentives that moved both the researchers and the actors in undertaking this initiative, the challenges they faced and the lessons learnt;- a short video displaying some excerpts from “Cambiare il clima” (with English subtitles), to show the structure of the play, what the researchers’ role was and how they interacted with the actors. Note to the Conveners: since some of the researchers involved in the play – besides the authors - will attend EGU2023, it will be possible also to involve them to listen about their experience, during the presentation or next to the display.