OTTAWA- A new play in the nation’s capital is taking some playful jabs at human nature in the face of climate change.
Emissions: A Climate Comedy opened with a pair of shows last weekend at the Ottawa Fringe festival that drew hundreds in a small venue, offering the crowds a glimpse of its humorous, musical take on public awareness about climate change.
With a modern-day version of Adam and Eve, the play is made up of a collection of vignettes that lightheartedly look at how people are dealing with climate change.
“Each examine a reason why climate change is such a difficult problem to solve,” said Tracey Guptill, the director of the show, who is working on a masters degree in environmental studies at Queens University. “So everything from denial to us versus them to the problem of specialized knowledge…. The overarching question is about individual versus collective responsibility.”
Ottawa-area writer Ann Cavlovic said she was inspired to draft the script after an environmentalist told her she was “immoral” for buying a car.
Cavlovic explained that the play explores whether one person can or should change their habits to be part of a solution that reduces the heat-trapping emissions that contribute to warming the planet.
The play has no explicit references to Canadian politics but has an indirect satirical reference to international negotiations with a “western” nation.
“I’d say that the U.S. and Canada, even though they may have flip-flopped recently, may have been in the same camp,” said Guptill, who also worked for environmental groups and causes.
“Canada was sort of on board at the beginning to do their bit and then pulled out of Kyoto. And now (in the U.S.) President Obama is talking about creating their first climate action plan.”
Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government was elected in 2006, about a dozen different countries have directly or indirectly questioned Canada’s climate change policies and its sincerity in making progress at international negotiations.
The government’s lead minister on the file, Peter Kent, has disputed those accusations, explaining instead that Canada is leading progress in achieving a future binding treaty that would include limits on pollution from major emitting countries such as the United States and China.
With two shows left on Thursday and Saturday, Guptill said anyone who attends, should be prepared to laugh, and perhaps gain some new perspective.
