Theatre’s ‘Green’ agenda: An ecocritical analysis of Lucy Kirkwood’s proto-environmental play The Children

Abstract

The fact of manmade prompted global warming and climate change is incredibly evident, yet the required universal action to handle this existential problem is still indolent. The growing need for an instant reaction to the current environmental emergency becomes a necessity and forms a new reality nowadays. There is an imminent threat that will overwhelm the entire realm if major preemptive actions are not taken in response to peoples’ repulsive behavior towards the environment. In this respect, the present paper intends to illuminate the ability and intent of Green Theatre in redirecting the course of the universal conduct towards nature in a path that can result in a constructive ecosocial reformation. Following this argument, the ecocritical theory is applied in analyzing Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children (2017) in an attempt to figure out the play’s ability in meeting a ‘Green’ agenda amidst a terrifying disorder of manmade and natural disasters. Kirkwood’s cautionary disaster play succeeds in making a tense drama out of the catastrophic results of human meddling in the natural sphere. Thus, patronizing this kind of eco-friendly Theatre and placing it into the frontier in the noble fight for the sustainability of natural and human existence can foster a collective potential awareness to actively indulge in ‘Green’ morals and practices that can lead to environmental safety and integrity.