20 Climate Themed Shows at the 2024 Edinburgh Festivals
The busiest time of year in the capital of Scotland is almost upon us, and the excitement is palpable. Throughout August, Edinburgh welcomes people to experience the magic of the numerous festivals taking place across the city. The streets, theatres and galleries come alive with performances, shows, talks and exhibitions during one of the largest cultural celebrations worldwide.
For those of you looking to be immersed in the world of arts and sustainability, we’ve compiled a list of 20 shows that share the themes of the environment, climate change, hope in the face of climate anxiety, carbon footprint and much more. From hopeful, immersive or experimental plays and imagined science fiction futures, to insightful book talks by recently published authors, there’s something for everyone - from Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, and Edinburgh International Film Festival..
- FREAK OUT! - This VAULT Festival Show of the Week nominee tells the story of UK communities losing their homes to coastal erosion. Performed by a company of seven, this high-energy theatrical cocktail blends clowning, physical theatre and live art to explore climate anxiety, what home means and what we owe to each other. FREAK OUT! was developed with support of choreographer Anthony Matsena (Sadler's Wells Associate) and Papatango Prize-winning playwright Matt Grinter.
- Bogancloch - A solitary soul in the Scottish wilderness is observed living a life that is harmonious and beautiful. Over a decade on from Two Years at Sea (2011), Ben Rivers returns to the ramshackle home of forest-dwelling hermit Jake Williams. Retaining Two Years’ intimacy, Bogancloch marks subtle changes in Jake’s self-contained existence. This is a mesmerising insight into one man at the edge of the world.
- Celebrating Nature with Yuval Zommer - Join best-selling author, illustrator, and environmentalist Yuval Zommer for a creative art workshop based on The Big Book of Nature Art. Perfect for young environmentalists, this event celebrates our connection with planet Earth and reveals the often-surprising similarities between humans, animals, and plants. Come along and create artworks that celebrate our connection with nature.
- no one is coming to save us - Maddy is worried that no one is having fun at her party. Her sister Lily is worried that the world is falling apart. As this group of friends gather on a mountaintop, watching the sunset, a wildfire sparks in the forest below. They drink beer and talk nonsense while the flames race toward them. From award winners Pepperdine Scotland and playwright Lewis Hetherington, this world premiere is about young people finding fragile hope in the face of an overwhelming environmental threat, carrying the flickering flame of belief that things might yet be alright.
- Ed Conway & Dharshini David: Living in a Material World - The past, present, and future of humanity’s treatment of the natural environment collide in this discussion between Ed Conway, who, in Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future, explores the role sand, salt, oil, copper, water, and lithium have played in human development, with BBC Chief Economics Correspondent Dharshini David, whose Environomics reveals the changes the green economy is already making to the planet.
- A New Kind of Wilderness - An intimate portrait of family bonds, rural life and the importance of human connection in the survival from grief. The Payne family lead an idyllic, off the grid lifestyle in the Norwegian wilderness. When a tragic event shatters their world, they are forced to give up their home for a less rural model of living. An ode to nature and resilience, this film is warm, potent and deeply moving.
- A Powerhouse in Ecology: Brigitte Baptiste - Nothing’s more queer than nature, says leading Colombian environmentalist, Brigitte Baptiste. From trees that switch gender, to female albatrosses who raise their young in same-sex partnerships; the natural word is more diverse than we’ve been led to believe. Celebrated internationally for her innovative research, Baptiste discusses how looking through a queer lens has prompted her to ask different questions and notice important patterns that have long been overlooked as anomalies.
- Stuart Goldsmith: Spoilers (A Climate Crisis Stand-Up Show) - Stuart's terrified of the climate crisis, but no-one he knows ever mentions it, so it must be fine. Climate comedian Stuart Goldsmith brings back his award-winning Spoilers for a limited run. Hilarious, hopeful, and vaguely educational 'expert stand-up' (Sunday Times) about hope, horror, hypocrisy and how to feel OK. As seen and heard on TBS' Conan, The Comedian's Comedian podcast, You're Dead to Me and Trusty Hogs.
- Nigamon/Tunai - Émilie Monnet, from Canada, and Waira Nina, from the Colombian Amazon, are interdisciplinary artists who seek to forge links between Indigenous people of the northern and southern hemispheres. They invite you into a mesmerising performance inspired by solidarity for the protection of water and resistance against extraction of resources. In the Colombian Amazon, on the territory of the Inga people, oil and mining companies destroy entire living environments to plunder resources. Together, the artists create a multi-sensory experience, immersing the audience in the traditional knowledge of their cultures and the struggles that bind them together.
- Mele Broomes: through warm temperatures – Through progressions of vocal callings accompanied by live melodies and choreographies, this work pays homage to a series of conversations facilitated by Mele and the living archive. The conversations serve as a guidance in reconnecting with natural sources; reflects on our bodies undergoing change influenced by constructs of time and the environment; and foregrounds the relationship between health and embodiment practices that centres individuals’ diasporic interpretations of well-being. through warm temperatures is about affirming past beliefs in castor oil: a natural remedy, an elixir, and an historic and abundant natural source that transcends categorisation and boundaries.
- Hannah Ritchie: Hope in a Warm Climate - When our newsfeeds are flooded with disaster, despair can seem like the only logical response to climate change. Yet in a bold, radically hopeful book, Not the End of the World, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that zooming out reveals a very different picture. In this solutions-focussed event, Ritchie talks with Mike Robinson (CEO of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society), unpacking the data that suggests true sustainability might in fact be within reach.
- Faovale Imperium - Join New Zealand Samoan/Welsh comedian James Nokise and DJ Don Luchito for a funny and thought-provoking exploration of the National Museum of Scotland’s Pacific collections, in the Facing the Sea Gallery. This free, on-gallery event brings an irreverent historical perspective, poetry of Oceania and dynamic soundscapes into the heart of the Museum. The performance shares a counter-narrative to the epic voyages of Captain James Cook, as he encounters the many cultures of the Pacific spreading ‘enlightenment’ to a people who lived in ecologically sustainable structures and knew how to sail without compasses…
- Things We Will Miss - A collage style devised work exploring the (potential) collapse of the Anthropocene, this personal meditation on the climate crisis explores the beauty and inevitability of impermanence. Born from the debris of late-stage capitalism, Things We Will Miss features performers in disparate roles, including an amateur astronomer, a park ranger, mythological prophet Cassandra, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and ultimately, themselves. Driven by image, light, and sound rather than linear narrative, it viscerally explores the grief and beauty, the horror and hope inherent in being alive in this very moment.
- Jonathan Watts: The Life and Legacy of James Lovelock - What was it like to interview one of Britian’s greatest minds? Jonathan Watts, global environment editor at the Guardian, joins us to discuss the in-depth conversations he had with the late scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock. Renowned for his Gaia hypothesis (the idea that life on Earth is a self-sustaining system), The Many Lives of James Lovelock is the definitive biography of a brilliant and contradictory man.
- Andrew Sim: two rainbows and a forest of plants and trees - Andrew Sim’s paintings transform The Jupiter Artland Ballroom into a dreamlike forest, with plants and trees growing beneath rainbows and star-studded skies. Reflecting on the process of growth, roots and networks, Sim captures the feeling of being between places – in a surreal landscape that is familiar yet strange. The exhibition includes works made at the artist’s London studio and completed on-site at Jupiter; it is Sim’s biggest exhibition to date in Scotland.
- The Seas Are Rising: Stories of a Climate in Crisis - A multimedia concert experience calling attention to the urgency of the climate crisis through original songs by American musician and songwriter Dan Sheehan. Songs telling stories of everyday people across the globe already facing raging wildfires, intensified hurricanes and devastating famine lead to a resounding finale, inspiring audiences to take personal actions and to demand climate justice from world leaders. Sheehan has won multiple songwriter awards from the American PRS affiliate ASCAP and was named Songwriter of the Year at the 2019 Elephant Talk Indie Music Awards.
- Más Arte Más Acción: Around a Tree - Colombian cultural foundation Más Arte Más Acción (MAMA) present an artistic public intervention, in the form of a large table around a tree, to discuss the interconnections between humans and plants in times of rapid biodiversity loss. The locally crafted circular table will be brought to life through discussions across disciplines of art and science; performances and readings; and collective actions. A soundscape, based on recordings made during the festival, building upon stops at botanical conferences including Ireland, Rwanda and Spain will be woven together by the artists to create a marathon of voices. This will be shared during the UN’s Biodiversity COP16 in Colombia in October, and the UN’s Climate COP30 in Brasil.
- All The Mountains Give - A powerful account of the Kolbari covert goods traded between the Kurdish cities and towns of Iran and borders of Iraq. The film follows Hamid and Yasser over six years as they contend with the life-threatening conditions they and their families have to face to survive. A rare insight into the plight of the Kurdish people, this is an elegant portrait of a marginalised people, where the palpable sense of risk and danger is contrasted with the gentle rhythms of family life under harsh conditions.
- Margaret Atwood: Practical Utopias - As part of our Future Tense series, and in partnership with Future Library, we are thrilled to present Margaret Atwood, appearing remotely, illuminating a concept that has gripped her extraordinary imagination of late, and offering a way forward from the most intractable challenges of our time – Practical Utopias. Can we reset the relationship between people and planet by bringing a new way of thinking to some of our most fundamental and pressing questions: what kind of homes should we live in? What should we eat? How can we share space on this planet together?
- Circus Baobab: Yé! - An exciting collective of artists from Guinea and the diaspora bring their debut show, Yé!, to Edinburgh. Showcasing incredible acrobatics, vertiginous human pyramids, hand-to-hand combat and contortions all performed in a frenetic rhythm. 'Full of punch and blending traditional expressions of circus with modernity' (Télérama), the thirteen young artists call us together to build a world of tomorrow that will take care of nature and it's future.