We attended ARC by Erth and After the Flood as guests of Sydney Opera House.
Most of our kids know about climate change. It’s an overwhelming topic for all of us. Among warming temperature figures, acres of deforestation measured, and news images of vast floods and fires, we don’t always put an individual face or story to the crisis.
Currently at the Sydney Opera House, theatre show ARC by Erth and immersive experience After the Flood, make the potential impacts of climate change personal in thoughtful, artistic ways.
These experiences can be attended separately. My 9 and 5 year old and I saw them on the same trip, making a full, memorable day.
ARC by Erth
When I think of Erth, I think of big: their Liminal Hour featured a 6-metre high woman who walked the streets of Barangaroo, and we’ve been dwarfed by their dinosaurs at festivals and on the stages. So, I did not go into their new show expecting the subtlety and emotional depth that ARC is built on.
I love a beautiful surprise.
Erth’s Artistic Director, Scott Wright, takes the lead, playing a man who is packing his home after the death of his wife. He is deep in grief, struggling with his loss and pandemic lockdowns, and also overwhelmed at the state of the world. He begins his narration (all in a very listenable verse) talking about the things he doesn’t want to think about.
Relatable. The world is so much right now – it often feels like more mental energy than we can afford to think about something like specific animals going extinct.
Then, animals start to enter his living room – via his imagination (and four black-clad puppeteers). A pangolin climbs on his sofa. Sharks soar through the sea – and the audience. A moth is an unlikely hero, ephemeral and misunderstood. They range from a tiny possum to a nearly life-sized elephant, most of them at-risk species. The artistry of these puppets and their puppeteers, along with the sound and lightscape, creates a whole world in the intimate Studio theatre.
Much more than a parade of stunning puppets, there’s an honest emotional ebb and flow led by Wright’s character. His sadness is allowed to sit. These animals give him comfort, memories, and perspective. Those things that he “didn’t want to think about” have the face of a leopard, the feel of a rhinoceros, and the song of a magpie.
When he invites a child from the audience on stage with him, the journey becomes bigger than himself. It’s an invocation, especially to the children, to think about their place in the natural world; about where they fit in with these remarkable animals. Can we get past the “don’t want to think abouts” to the what-can-we-do?. Each animal is worth our consideration.
ARC by Erth runs through October 7 at Sydney Opera House’s Studio.
Recommended age: 5+
Tickets: $39.50, plus booking fee. Livestream tickets are also available.
After the Flood
A few steps down the hall from the Studio theatre is a completely different experience in the Centre for Creativity. After the Flood is an immersive adventure – one part guided meditation, one part gentle call-to-action on climate change.
We are asked to take off our shoes and given bluetooth headphones. Entering a dreamy kelp forest, everyone is invited to find their own comfortable spot. Miss 5 chose a swing. Miss 9 and I found pillows on the carpeted floor.
Through the headphones, a story is told by children’s voices. They live in a far distant future – after “the flood.” They have adapted to life underwater, both physically and as a society. Remnants of the city remain, though have little practical use in the new reality.
It’s a soothing story, and does not hammer hard on its climate change theme. It suggests that our reality might fundamentally change as the oceans rise. As we were lulled in this underwater world, I wondered if, perhaps, it will take something that drastic for us to find our way to a simpler, more peaceful, less materialistic way of life.
At the end of the story, participants are invited to craft tables. Children and adults all have the opportunity to draw or collage an impression from the story. It is with new eyes, readjusting to the sunlight, that we look out over Sydney Harbour and wonder what it might look like in the future.
After the Flood runs through October 2 at Sydney Opera House’s Centre for Creativity
Recommended age: 3+
Tickets: $29 plus booking
While you’re there … drop in craft is available in the foyer. Between sessions, my kids enjoyed making sculptures around the “campfire.” This is free, no bookings required.
For more arts activities in Sydney these school holidays, check out our Spring 2022 Sydney School Holidays Arts Guide.