The office is a shambles, the heating won’t turn off, and somewhere along the line the printer caught fire. As the return of the hit show Slow Violence approaches this month, The Indiependent had the chance to discuss the play and its resonance in recent years with creators and performers Laura Ryder and Harry Kingscott.
The Indiependent: You first toured the play in 2021. How do you feel about returning to it again?
Laura Ryder and Harry Kingscott: The show was actually made in 2020 but we weren’t able to tour it until 2021. It was excellent to tour it then and get it in front of audiences. We can’t wait to bring it back; we got a great response from audiences on the last tour. It’s the audience who really bring the show to life with their laughter [and] it feels joyous to be able to meet audiences again with a show we know works.
Where did the inspiration for Slow Violence come from?
Originally, we hadn’t intended to make a comedy. We knew we wanted to make a show about climate apathy. We’d read a phrase, coined by Rob Nixon, “slow violence” to describe climate change and knew we wanted to use it as a starting point. In rehearsals, the more we played with the realities of climate apathy, the more clown-like and absurd it felt—that we’ve known about climate change for years and still seem unable to take action. The show grew into this absurd silly pressure cooker.
What should the audience know about Claire, Pete, and their relationship?
We meet Peter on his first day in the Happy Holidays office. He’s being shown around by the enthusiastic Claire. It’s clear from the get go that they might find themselves having a few issues later on. Because the show is set in an office there’s loads of fun in the game of them having to maintain their work personas and professionalism even through the most ridiculous of circumstances.
One of Laura’s aims for the production is to encourage audiences to, “explore the apathy and inaction that exists in relation to climate change.” How do you think Slow Violence could help to dispel or reduce this apathy?
An audience member from the last tour said she wanted to shout at Claire and Peter to “do something” which I think is brilliant. They are fantastically frustrating to watch as they struggle to act or make the change that’s needed to happen. We hope audiences leave the show feeling like there is hope and that we don’t have to accept the system as it is.
Considering the ever-evolving threat of the climate crisis, do you think the impact and resonance of the play will be any different this year?
It feels important to maintain hope, to notice the victories and amazing actions that are being taken to tackle the threat of climate change. Even since we started making the show there have been good steps taken. They obviously are neither ambitious nor fast enough but they also mean that people’s awareness and appetite for action are growing. We’ve also seen a real rise in the number of theatre shows out there that are exploring the issue of environment and climate change. This feels fantastic. We really believe that art and theatre have a huge role to play, as climate change is the defining issue of our time. Theatre can be a space for compassion, empathy and imagination which are so needed to help tackle the climate crisis.
There’s a lot of doom and gloom surrounding climate change at the moment, specifically around what we should have done in the past, and what we need to be doing right now. In this sense, why do you think it’s important for people to see Slow Violence?
Theatre is a communal experience. We all sit together and collectively imagine the world of the play and its characters. There is beauty and joy in that shared experience. It feels important that we aren’t taken in by the narratives that climate change is an individual’s responsibility. We need communal action, small and large. Hopefully seeing the show will give audiences a chance to think about climate apathy through a playful lens, to not be resigned to a doom and gloom narrative but to feel we as a collective do have power to make change.
Slow Violence will be performed at Pleasance Theatre from 21-25 March.
Words by Faye Price
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