Reprinted from The Dominion Post, November 1, 2008:

In what is believed to be a New Zealand first, performances and rehearsals of Heat are powered by wind and solar energy - using a one-meter wind turbine and four solar panels - to mirror the challenge of life in the polar region.

The panels and turbine take energy from the sun and wind, and store it in batteries that can release energy consistently over a long period.

Heat, by Lynda Chanwai-Earle, is loosely based on retired couple Yvonne and Jim Claypole, who spent a year in Antarctica living in a tiny hut chained to the rocks 2000 kilometres from anyone else.

Ms Chanwai-Earle says that despite the strong environmental focus of the play, the audience is not in for a lecture on sustainability. They can expect an intense drama about the couple and a penguin which blows their world apart.

That penguin is more specifically a naked, body-painted “penguin”, played by Brian Hotter.

The Claypoles were connected to civilisation only by satellite link, which is mirrored in the play.

They kept an online diary for primary schools and answered pupils’ questions about their day-to-day lives. Ms Chanwai-Earle says that though the Claypoles were a creative inspiration, hers is a work of fiction, designed to entertain. The set recreates the exact dimensions of the Claypoles’ hut, with the audience partially forming its walls.

Heat is set in 1999, the year that the Claypoles spent on ice, but director David O’Donnell says the timing has deeper significance. “It’s important symbolically, partly because of the millennium, but also in that year the biggest ozone hole was discovered, to that date, and it was sort of the beginning of awareness about sustainability and protecting the environment.”

The play was originally commissioned by Circa Theatre, but when the theatre declined to pick it up, Ms Chanwai-Earle started thinking about other options for production.

A friend, freelance writer and director Martyn Roberts, suggested reproducing the Antarctic energy conditions, and luckily, sponsors were enthusiastic about supplying the hardware.

The crew initially looked into using biofuels, but found there were conflicting reports over their efficiency and it was difficult to find a source that would provide a consistent power supply.

By using the slow-release batteries, they could produce professional lighting and sound, though on a more conservative scale.

“We can’t use as much lighting as we normally would, but it makes us aware of how much energy a normal production does use,” Mr O’Donnell says.

Sound director Gareth Farr travelled to Antarctica in the summer of 2005-06, on a Creative New Zealand fellowship and some of the sounds he recorded are used in the play’s soundtrack.

Heat runs from November 7 till November 22 at Bats Theatre, Wellington.

by Stacey Wood

Links:

News Coverage ofHeat, featuring playwright, Lynda Chanwai-Earle