UPDATE: 23rd June 2022 – It was an honour and privilege to work with students from Christopher Whitehead High School for their interpretation of the play. I am looking forward to more youth groups / schools developing this in the near future;
Friday October 29th saw the inaugural performance of ‘Out of the Darkness’ at the Henry Sandon Hall, Worcester; a play combining poetry, dance and rock music exploring themes of climate change and environmental awareness, humanity and empathy, with words and video by Leena Batchelor, dances performed by dancers from The Chase School, Malvern in years 8-13, and music by the Hollywood Vampires (Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Joe Perry from Aerosmith).
The audience were initially uncertain as to what to expect from the performance. Although the idea of poetry and dance together is not a new concept, to combine them in a play of this nature was unusual; even more so since the play will now be offered to any school or community group who wish to perform it, gratis. The only caveat – they choreograph the dance and set the stage themselves, to give students the opportunity to personalise the play. Throughout the entire production various videos, animated and edited by Leena, played in the background, providing further and deeper atmosphere to the concerning events affecting our planet and society.
Opening with a recorded poem by Leena, ‘Tenuous Tenacity’, the audience were then treated to thoughtfully choreographed dance sets and further poetry relating to the theme.
Leena commented “The dancers were throughout, both during rehearsals and the performance, stunningly professional and exhibited with flair their talent under the guidance of dance teacher Sarah McVay. Many of the girls had never performed a live show before; I was incredibly moved by their interpretation and dedication to the project. A feature of the project’s remit is to encourage young people to express their voice through performance arts; it is true to say they acquitted themselves with aplomb and should be rightfully proud of what they achieved.”
A significant coup for the performance was the endorsement by the Hollywood Vampires, who upon reading the script said:
“with ‘Out of the Darkness’, Leena has created a hugely important and timely piece of work, in which we are honoured to offer our own minor contribution”
Comments from the audience were so heart-warming and positive:
Should anyone be interested in performing the play at a venue of their choice, please contact Leena.
The full performance video complete with behind the scenes footage is available here. Apologies for the quality, sadly the camera was not in the best position and technical issues caused the mic to drop out on occasion…..but hey I promise it’ll be better next time! Below you will also find the poetry from the performance…..
OUT OF THE DARKNESS – TWILIGHT OF HUMANITY
(AN SOS FOR THE WORLD)
We all had hope, but our hopes were different from what we needed, what the world needed.
They called me weird, said I was the ‘odd one’.
I tried to warn them, told them our world, our home would eventually reject us.
We built, we created,
And we destroyed.
The web we wove around us was about to unravel.
Mr Spider by Hollywood Vampires with video
Tragic events so many failed to note, the destruction of goodwill; and what happened to humanity, and empathy,
Twins in our story, founding siblings of society?
Australia – Burning bushes razed to the ground,
Cleansed by the flickering wrath of crimson flame.
Highlighted in the ebony of space, our next horizon.
The slash and burn season now irrelevant, unnecessary.
California –
The carnage of man-made monoliths,
Nature’s wrath bent the trees to kiss the power lines to spark the fuel,
Golden beaches gained a new glow,
The sunset crackling with cordite and flame,
Alive in the death throes of waste and greed.
England – Ilkley Moor was without its hat as the fires ravaged the scrub,
The kiss of winds spread the news that fire was back in town,
Out of season, unexpected – barbeques and day trips adding to the fiery repast.
Landscapes consumed in a picnic of charred soil and smoky skies.
And we thought we were above it all, above nature,
In our castle, one and all.
Our home regarded as no more than earth and rock,
A scientific conglomeration of atoms,
With no more heart than a clock
DATE: IN THE NEAR FUTURE
As predicted, following reports from the Earth’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), since humans have continued to consume vast quantities of fossil fuels with contemptuous disregard for their environment and all life forms which share it, the Earth’s average temperature has risen by 7 degrees. The planet is now in a critical state.
An S.O.S. has been issued requesting urgent action is taken immediately to eradicate this threat.
Such action will be irreversible.
Elsewhere video (video only link)
Elsewhere – We heard the news, mourned the losses.
Played fiddle as the Amazon parched, thirsted rainforests crumbled to ash.
2019 – 8.9million acres.
The size of Belgium.
Gone.
Siberia, burnings that created enough CO2 to compete with the emissions of 36 million cars.
36 million.
From one country.
We became immune to the news and missed the others.
Do you remember Brazil, Congo, or Peru?
No, I thought not.
BBC & The Guardian 2016: In August, in a remote area of Siberian tundra, a 12-year old boy died and at least 20 people hospitalised after being infected by anthrax, released from the frozen carcass of an infected reindeer that had lain hidden under the permafrost for 75 years. The heatwave in the summer of 2016 had caused the permafrost to thaw. However, the big fear is what else is lurking beneath the frozen soil?
NewsWeek Feb 2020: The study’s authors warn that ice melt will release glacial microbes….the same is true of pathogenic bacteria…
Sir David Attenborough 2020: ‘Human beings have overrun the world and are sending it into decline’
World Meteorological Organisation 2021: Earth is a mere five years from an irreversible and disastrous climate tipping point, posing a real threat to civilisation.
The stories started as a trickle over the years…global warming, hottest seasons on record, melting glaciers, unusual viruses. At first, people thought these cries the baying of a collective of crackpot environmental consciousness….by the time they sat up and took notice it was too late; much too late. The news stories were only the symptoms of something deeper, something which had lain dormant and hidden since the beginning.
The pollution; that had crept up over time and yet, as much as many of us hated to admit it, the resulting products we had created became such a part of our lives that we could no longer go back; we had forgotten how to be without them; dependant. Our constant and insidious evolvement had created far reaching effects that no-one had surmised, so engrossed were they in the detail. Most of us simply ignored the warning signs, and now there was nothing that could be done. The planet needed a reset to create a new slate for a better scheme to evolve – there were some things that were worth saving (those butterflies for example, damn, they’re so pretty! And powerful in unimaginable ways –a single flicker from their gossamer wings could cause such a ripple that a tsunami would occur on the other side of the world), but us, humans, we had to go; completely. Our poisonous greed had defiled our gift, created an imbalance that was now precariously teetering on the edge; our ignorant power capable of destroying everything.
Despair video (video only link)
So as the skies grew warmer, and glaciers melted back to stygian ooze, the increasing warmth allowed energy to be absorbed into the core releasing everything that had been held back in the arsenal for eons. Mistakenly, scientists had held to the belief that although the atmosphere was warming, the core was cooling. Simple physics reminds us that heat creates energy; atoms from gases in the atmosphere and pollution in the soil were constantly in collision, creating exactly the right conditions for the thermonuclear fusion to take place deep out of sight.
We could only watch in horror on the day that everything escalated to the point of no return. Suddenly it seemed as if the planet and all its fauna paused, took breath, then shimmered in its panic to escape the inescapable.
Can you hear that?
Silence.
Not a pause, but a full stop
Congratulations by Hollywood Vampires
Time ticks on as they used to say.
How much time do you have?
Who can say?
I needed you to understand.
You needed to hear the warning and learn the lesson.
Nature unleashed her own arsenal. Her mantle started to shrink as the surface cooled. Ice sheets thawed and cracked and released a threat far more potent than any man-made weapon, forgotten beneath eons of man’s trampling footprints.
The carapace shuddered, dislodging the pestilence that polluted beauty,
And we fell from our own grace.
I know you see me as an image, not your reality.
No need to answer me, talk to me, acknowledge me.
But do not let my voice be a mindless echo carried on the breeze with the tides of Time.
It is through listening you will connect with your world, restore what’s left of humanity.
Ahh, humanity and empathy, what became of them?
Were they lost among the detritus of what we built?
Only you can search through Time’s silt.
Be more than mere observers and entwine those siblings of hope once more.
Do you think you deserve a second chance?
Did you solve the puzzle?
Humanity and Empathy are recluses within your own soul.
It’s not consideration for us we need,
But regard for what we discard, all too easily.
Maybe it is too late to turn back the clock.
But it is never too late to take stock.
Your new world awaits you, take a step to your future,
But please do not waste these moments of warning.
Pixie Muse Poetry & Prose 