header
PROJECTS

Climate Change Roadshows

Purpose

This project started out as a means of getting to the core of the message we wanted to put out through our Save our World festivals in 1998-2000; but we found ourselves too caught up in managing the festivals themselves to give this the attention it really needed. We also wanted to distinguish it clearly from the exchange of opinions that usually comprise debates at summertime events and festivals in the UK. It was the culmination of three years' planning to go down the route of commissioning professional actors to engage the public in addressing and responding to the dangers of climate change.

We eventually achieved this aim, but only through a tortuous process of applying for funding in various quarters. Offered £500 from Transport for London to present what we called (ironically) our Roadshow at the Shoreditch Car Free Day in Central London, on Sunday 21 September 2003, we rose to the occasion and presented it for the first time.

In partnership with the theatrical organisation THE LIONS PART, the Roadshow was designed to do four things:

1. INFORM participants very simply about the causes and effects of climate change;

2. ENGAGE them in what climate change means for them and action they think they can take - in a very lively, spontaneous and participative way;

3. EMPOWER them by giving them a taste of taking such action - and more than they thought possible;

4. COMMIT them to following up that action in their own lives, with the support of Save our World.

Content

It consisted of a play within a play, with the active participation of audiences consisting mostly of parents and young children. It starts with a keen young woman trying to get her lazy unbothered brother to come with her to the Roadshow. There a naff man in a striped blazer, heavy specs and top hat, introduces the Show illustrating what climate change can do to disrupt the weather, with the help of his two assistants who clown the effects of the problems it causes for people. Then the Show turns to what people can do about climate change, acted out for the benefit of the audiences. Finally all participants are handed out academic-looking Certificates for them to enter future intentions (pledges) out of 'caring for the future of our beautiful planet' and the children in the audiences are helped with filling them in. It was also stated on the Certificate that 'Save our World will, on request, support these intentions with a telephone call in a month's time to the number you leave on the Questionnaire'.

A series of Roadshows followed the September 2003 one in:

August 2004 at Carshalton Fair, Sutton, South London,
September 2004 again at the Shoreditch Car Free Day,
October 2004 outside Southwark Cathedral and in Peckham, South London,
June 2005 at Camden Green Fair, Regents Park, London,
July 2005 at Stockwell Festival, Lambeth, South London.

All of the following ones were financed by the Bridge House Trust, now known as City Bridge Trust, with the exception of those in October 2004, which were commissioned and mainly funded by Sustainable Energy Action for their annual Energy Efficiency week. SEA is now called Energy Descent.

Evaluation

An outcome evaluation of all the Roadshows funded by Bridge House Trust is included on the July 2005 page.

The Roadshow was normally performed two or three times at each venue. While each one had unique strengths and limitations, common to all those held in open spaces was a recurring problem of retaining audiences throughout the Show and certificate signing process, it being all too easy for people to show up when things got exciting and drift away at other times, when the message was likely to be more important. Those held in marquees were much more successful in this respect.

Overall however, the lively way in which the actors succeeded in captivating the audiences of mainly young people and children, is reflected in the latter’s enthusiastic participation and the responses that many gave in questionnaires. It was plainly evident that in these audiences none of the widely reported problems of denial and helplessness about climate change featured. We consider the outcome of these Roadshows to be highly encouraging for both performers and Save our World.
Untitled Document FEATURES/VIDEOS

Video







Footer