What is your first memory of the ocean? That’s the starting point for an unusual theatre piece that’s coming to Port Alfred on Thursday night (7 July). Led by Dylan McGarry and Taryn Pereira from Rhodes University’s Environmental Learning Research Centre, Lalela uLwandle is both performance and research – something called Empatheatre.
The April floods in KwaZulu-Natal that scientists say were twice as likely to happen as a result of climate change are a recent example of how profound an impact decision makers’ failure to listen to meticulous, in-depth scientific research has on people’s lives. But what if scientists have been getting it wrong all along? Not the research, but how they communicate it?
That’s exactly the problem, says project collaborator Dr Kira Erwin, senior researcher at the Durban University of Technology’s Urban Futures Centre. Talk of the Town spoke to her ahead of this week’s performance in Port Alfred of the interactive theatre piece, Lalela uLwandle (‘Listen to the sea’).
“The research we produce isn’t accessible,” she says. This is because of the style and format of academic writing, and the fact that it sits inside a bound library volume.
“We found that it doesn’t matter what the science says, there is still no shift.”
Enter what academics call narrative data – what most of us call stories.
“Research looks at issues through a critical lens. Stories are a critical tool, but they also allow empathy: you can suspend your judgment while you’re listening to a story.
“The other reason stories are so powerful is that storytelling has a long tradition in Africa. It’s a form people readily accept.”
This kind of research starts with open-ended questions.
“We start with a shared understanding, rather than with the interviewee’s expertise.”
Lalela uLwandle is research based storytelling that starts with the participant audience: ‘What is your first memory of the ocean?’
“When there’s a paradigm change required, such as the shift away from fossil fuels, it’s such a big shift from both the economy and ways of life that it needs change at both structural and individual levels,” Erwin says.
That means it’s not just all about lobbying government ministers.
“Any ally with any approach is an important part of a paradigm shift,” Erwin says. “Local stories in local communities are very powerful and we work hard to bring decision makers into that space.”
Read more about the thinking behind the project here:
IT’S YOUR STORY
In Lalela uLwandle, Mpume Mtombeni plays Nolwandle, a marine educator with an ancestral heritage in Zulu spirituality, Alison Cassels plays Faye, a retired marine scientist and Rory Booth plays Niren, a young social and environmental activist and descendant of a long line of Durban Indian fisherfolk. This talented and award-winning cast perform a captivating production based on first-hand testimonials that have been crafted into a theatrical journey.
The writing team, led by Neil Coppen and with contributions from Helen Walne, Gcina Mhlope, Mpume Mthombeni, Dylan McGarry, Taryn Pereira and Kira Erwin, pieced together verbatim oral histories, interviews, focus group discussions, archival research and local stories into a rich narrative of fictional characters’ hopes, dreams and concerns for our shared coastal and oceanic heritage.
The performance is a research methodology, Empatheatre. In the words of director Neil Coppen: “Empatheatre is a theatre-based method that intentionally aims to inspire and develop a greater empathy and kindness in complex social learning spaces that are experiencing conflict or injustice.”
After the show the audience are encouraged to participate in a public dialogue space facilitated by the research team from the Environmental Learning Research Centre (Rhodes University) and the Urban Futures Centre (Durban University of Technology). These rich discussions have already brought to the surface the public voices of over 800 citizens that were used in a legal appeal against the approval for offshore oil and gas drilling project on the KZN coast in 2019.
Lalela uLwandle will be at Ndlambe Town Hall, 1 Causeway Street, Port Alfred, on Thursday 7 July at 7pm-8.30pm Entry is free. For more information: TamlynnF@dut.ac.za
