Three Sisters: A Story from the Climate Future – Creating Community Resilience through Collective Listening Events

This article is framed within the practice of socially engaged performance and participatory theatre. Lena Šimić and James Marriott discuss their research methodology of collective listening events, as a means of responding to the climate crisis. Working from the audio play that they co-created Three Sisters: A Story from the Climate Future (2023), these researcher-practitioners engaged various communities across the North of England and Scotland (Stove Café in Dumfries; Artistic Research Centre in Bidston; Kitty’s Laundrette in Anfield, Liverpool; Glenlivet Estate Office in Tomintoul; and Cornucopia in Hawick) in order to think together about climate futures in these specific locations. The article argues that the creative methodology of collective listening to audio drama and follow up discussions in local communities, allows for the building of and re-iteration of community resilience. Using audio drama as a springboard for facilitated conversations around climate futures supports in depth emotional engagement from the audiences. The research revealed that the communities’ main concerns were to do with physical impacts of climate crises, local and global migration, and social deprivation and decline. However, all these factors also allow for emerging models of new community formations and co-existence together in present and future worlds. The article is in contextual critical dialogue with scholarship around ecodramaturgies and environmental theatre. It also includes extracts from the audio play in order to engage the readers with the experience of listening, as well as enabling climate future imaginaries.