This case study was originally published as part of the Environmental Sustainability Review 2023/24 - read the Review
Sleeping Warrior Theatre Company is a Glasgow based company created by director/writer/ composer Andy McGregor to create exciting, original, high-quality theatre focused on heightened theatricality and original music.
To Save the Sea is a collaboration between Andy and eco-feminist theatre-maker Isla Cowan, a sung-through musical with an urgent socioenvironmental message. The creative team also includes designer Claire Halleran who is using Theatre Greenbook to ensure a spectacular and sustainable design for the productions Autum 2024 tour.
Based on the real-life events of the Greenpeace takeover of Brent Spar in 1995, the environmental themes of the show are timely and urgent, especially as we are approaching the 30th anniversary of the Brent Spar occupation and questions of climate crisis, protest, and the role of oil in Scotland’s future loom large.
To Save the Sea will take advantage of theatre’s role as a civic space as the ecological resonances of the musical is still relevant today. In 2019, Greenpeace activists once again boarded Shell offshore oil structures in the North Sea in protest unsafe disposal practices.
It is hoped To Save the Sea will inspire hope and empower communities to stand up for what they believe in and make positive changes in combating climate crisis.
Sleeping Warrior Theatre Company’s To Save the Sea was funded by Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund for Theatre and Dance in 2023/24.
The show is touring Scotland now, through Autumn 2024 - visit their website for tour dates and to book tickets.
Header image courtesy of Sleeping Warrior Theatre Company. Image Credit: David Sims and Greenpeace.