Hidden in the Pacific Ocean lies the small island of Nauru, once called Pleasant Island by European explorers. Its history appears to be a metaphor of our current day and age, in which colonization, capitalism, migration and ecology are on a collision course. After the exhaustive exploitation of the island’s vast underground phosphate deposits, both under British-Australian rule and afther its independence in 1968, the island was left in economic and ecologic ruins. Today Nauru is hosting dead-end refugee camps in return for a large amount of Australian money. Meanwhile, the island risks to be swallowed by the ocean as a result of the rising sea level.
It is in this post-apocalyptic setting that documentary theatremakers Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere encounter the limitations of a world that is intent on endless growth. Drawing on interviews and conversations with residents and refugees on the island, they search for new perspectives. What future is there in a place that has been exhausted in ecological, economic and humanitarian terms? And how do we deal with the gloomy predictions that appear to await all of us?
In English, French & Dutch subtitles
by: Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere, sound mixing: Lieven Dousselaere, thanks to: all conversation partners in Nauru, presentation: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Beursschouwburg, production: kunstencentrum CAMPO, coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Spring Festival Utrecht, Beursschouwburg,
Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, Veem House For Performance, Theaterfestival SPIELART München, De Brakke Grond, residencies: Beursschouwburg, De Grote Post, KAAP, Kunstencentrum Buda, kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, STUK, De Brakke Grond, LOD, Veem House for Performance
Photo © Vlad Sokhin