Theatre stalwart Ellis Pearson is perched on a very tall stool in the centre of the Rhumbelow theatre. He’s not coming down. In fact, the old man he is portraying has scaled a tree to protest against the bull dozing of the final tree in a village to make way for a housing development – and has refused to budge for three days.
Pearson and partner Sdumo Mtshali are rehearsing “Little Tree”, a show funded by the eThekwini Municipality’s Environmental Management Department and specially created for the Wildlands Conservation Trust. The premier of “Little Tree” will be held at the organisations annual fundraiser, “Art for Conservation”, an art exhibition, auction and gala dinner on October 9. Part of the proceeds from the event go towards Wildlands’ Indigenous Trees For Life project and the performance deals with, amongst other environmental challenges, the destruction of forests and the desperate need to plant more trees to stave off global warming.
“The way we tackle this is to show just how great nature is. We are not saying that development is unnecessary, but that we should never lose the balance. That is why Wildlands and the eThekwini Municipality are reclaiming land and planting forests,” Pearson explained before scaling a ladder to his precarious seat.
Mtshali’s many characters – a worried grandson, a ‘cool’ and street wise dude and the induna who finds himself on shaky ground when he tries to defend destroying trees in the name of development – get the same answer when they ask how to get him to come down. “You know what to do.”
The same will probably apply to the audience. Warnings about global warming and pleas to plant trees are not new. In fact, thanks to all the media hype, both this and many other audiences might say they’ve “heard it all before.”
To make people sit up and listen, Pearson believes in going for the unexpected. “By trying to make something unusual, we’ll be creeping up behind them rather than (launching) a full frontal attack. Theatre can do that.
“Theatre is wonderful. It has a (special) kind of language. Our goal is to make it fun – but, at the end of the day, it all about trying to make people feel something so that they do something differently.” In this production, and many of the others to which Pearson has contributed, key elements include universal appeal across all age groups, a sense of surprise, danger and energy.
“Normally, with something like Oscar Wilde, there is an established script. We are creators. We write the stuff ourselves and create the characters. In essence, it’s handmade theatre for specific occasions. It is about finding a whole new story, one that keeps growing from performance to performance,” he explains.
Pearson is certainly no stranger to strong messages and this is not the first time he has wagged his finger when it comes to the environment. One of his most acclaimed productions, Black Out, rang the alarm about global warming while his most recent one, Impisi, used an unlikely relationship between a lion and a hyena to deliver a powerful life lesson in a Jungle Book sort of way – make the most of what you have rather than hankering after what you do not.
Impisi marked the first partnership between Mtshali and Pearson. The two met at the Durban University of Technology. Mtshali was a student while Pearson was on campus, working on a project. Pearson said he was so impressed by Mtshali’s acting that, when he developed the Impisi project, he was the automatic choice.
“Little Tree” is their second joint project and, hopefully one of many to come. The version that will be performed at the Art for Conservation auction will be shortened. The full 45 minute show is being sponsored by eThekwini Municipality’s Environmental Management Department and is destined for schools and communites that have been chosen in conjunction with Wildlands. “After that, we hope it has got an even longer life with a variety of environmental organisations both in South Africa and abroad,” he says.
Pearson’s own view of the environment is fairly straight forward – despite sending up space probes and satellites, we still only know of one blue planet which is why we cannot wash it down the drain.
“The best way to capture nature is to watch a bird, look at a tree, catch the sounds of things, gaze at the sky. It is not just about the big five. If we really love something, then we won’t harm it.”
See Ellis and Sdumo in the premier of “Little Tree” sponsored by the eThekwini Municipality’s Environmental Management Department at Wildlands Art for Conservation Exhibition, Auction and Gala Dinner.
Event Details:
Date: Friday 9th October
Time: 17h00 preview of exhibition, 19h30 banquet
Venue: Conference Centre / Imbizo Room, Sibaya Casino & Entertainment Kingdom
Entrance: Through Main Casino
Dress Code: “Go Wild” / Traditional / Evening
Exhibition Curator: Lindsay Sommer
Auctioneer: Brandon Leer
Tickets: R500 pp
Contact: Christine Bateson 033 343 6380
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)