NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� V, the playwright formerly Eve Ensler, is hoping her new piece of theater can do for climate change what her 鈥淭he Vagina Monologues鈥� did for women's rights.
鈥淲e鈥檙e living in a period where we鈥檙e so disconnected,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hat we all have to do is connect 鈥� connect to the Earth and connect to each other.鈥�
She hopes to give audiences a road map at the one-night-only staging of 鈥淒ear Everything,鈥� with actors and activists Jane Fonda and Rosario Dawson speaking to the crowd. It will play Manhattan's Terminal 5 on Jan. 30.
鈥淎t a time when our planet is burning from the impact of global warming and human-made climate catastrophe, 鈥楧ear Everything鈥� is a powerful musical uprising," Fonda said in an email.
The concert-musical hybrid has songs by and Caroline Pennell, choreography by Christiana Hunt and direction by Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus.
V will play the narrator for a story with 10 singers as well as a youth choir. The show doesn't spell out a single prescription for climate change but hopes to inspire collective action.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not necessarily about the politics of solution. It鈥檚 about the politics of connection,鈥� says V. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 imaginative. I think it鈥檚 really calling on all of us to use our imaginations because that's the greatest thing we have to really see a way out of where we are.鈥�
鈥淒ear Everything鈥� had an earlier run at Harvard University's American Repertory Theater. Back then, it was called 鈥淲ILD,鈥� and its run was cut short by the pandemic.
鈥淚 was trying to find a way to create a story, to create pop music, that could really generate an awakening in people. Not by pounding them over the head, but by saying, 鈥楲isten to the kids. Listen to young people. They really have a vision of what鈥檚 coming because they can feel it in their bodies and they want a life.鈥欌��
V hopes 鈥淒ear Everything鈥� can be produced elsewhere. It's not expensive and doesn't need fancy sets or lighting, a bit like her 鈥淭he Vagina Monologues,鈥� a series of sly, lyrical, incisive first-person vignettes based on her interviews with hundreds of women.
V describes the Earth as a woman and sees her activism against climate change as part of her overall fight to protect and honor women.
鈥淲e made the mission to end violence against women, girls and trans and non-binary people and the Earth because it was all part of the same story,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e're still going.鈥�
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
