Water is everywhere in this remarkable collaboration between indigenous artists from North and South America, which charts how the planet’s natural resources are plundered and entire ecosystems destroyed in the name of greed. From Canada, and with Anishinabe and French roots, Émilie Monnet stands side by side with Waira Nina, who is Inga, and from the Colombian Amazon. The title of the play in each of their respective languages means ‘song’, and this is exactly what emerges over this ninety-minute work that is part sound installation, part durational ritual.
The audience are seated on cushions around rock pools and foliage in a fully immersive unspoilt idyll. Monnet and Nina move in and around this, utilising sound baths drawn from the natural environment . The pair caw and spar as they re-enact birdsong.
They pile rock on top of rock in a room where even the hot air itself seems to breathe. Read More: 'Exhilarating piece of serious fun': Hamlet, Lyceum Theatre , Edinburgh review This magnificent, mesmerising play is a five-star sensation 'Exhilarating theatrical fantasia goes from spy thriller pastiche to urban fable' When the sound of machines invades the air, however, that idyll is torn in two, and the old ways are threatened out of existence. As the voices of a radio commentary make clear in an otherwise largely wordless construction, the mining of precious copper will upset the entire ecosystem, and the world will change forever.
This makes for a haunting meditat.