A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction Katie Mitchell & Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne / Martha Balthazar & NTGent

We're on the last run of a show that's been around for two years. But tonight, its performer can't go on stage. In her place, the dramaturg - in her 30s, afraid of death- addresses the audience and tries to resolve this tricky situation.

“I'm just going to try to tell you a few stories tonight, about some things I have been thinking about and researching in private. So that none of us has to be unbearably lonely tonight.” 

Based on an original concept developed by British director Katie Mitchell for Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, and written by author Miranda Rose Hall, A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction  is the first of two chapters in the Sustainable Theatre?-project, in which thirteen theatres in Europe and Asia reflect together on ways to make theater more sustainable.

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The play, a courageous reflection on theatre and life facing climate disaster, is handed over from Katie Mitchell to other artists with nothing more than a series of instructions. For example, the entire staging process, in a radical approach, must be sustainable. Therefore, the required power of the performance will be produced live with the use of electricity-generating bikes. Thus making the tour, and its huge environmental impact, disappear. In its place a cycle of transmissions is triggered. From one artist to another. 

Martha Balthazar, columnist and director who graduated from KASK Ghent in 2021, will direct NTGent's version of the play. She and actor Lisah Adeaga connect their artistic vision with the core topics of the performance: What is the impact of humans on the world? And how do we keep on being human knowing this? Which inheritance do we want for the future generations? And how can we re-establish our connection with the entire spectrum of living species at a time where total extinction is a real possibility?