Durban theatre company, Empatheatre, performed its play ‘Lalela Ulwandle’ at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh on 14 November. The intention of the cast and crew was to place an ‘acupuncture point’ within COP27 decision-making and spark deeper consideration of grassroots coastal realities of the climate crisis.

Theatre productions are “profound storytelling tools” that can improve how we make decisions around the critical aspects of our world, such as the climate crisis. Empatheatre, a Durban-based theatre company, planned to accomplish exactly that at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt this week, according to co-founder Dylan McGarry, a Senior Researcher within the Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC). 

Empatheatre’s recent play, Lalela Ulwandle (“Listen to the Sea” in isiZulu), has been invited to COP27 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to perform in Sharm el-Sheikh on 14 November, at the Capacity-building Hub of the Blue Zone as part of the One Ocean Hub, which collaborates with the ELRC as a key local partner to influence ocean health and integrated ocean governance for equitable and inclusive sustainability.

“This means that real stories are finally entering the United Nations, unedited and fully embodied,” said Neil Coppen, the director of Lalela Ulwandle. 

According to Coppen, the One Ocean Hub event hoped to respond to the mandate from COP27 to integrate and strengthen ocean-based action in their capacity-building efforts. “There is a need for knowledge systems that include scientific, traditional, local and indigenous perspectives,” added Coppen. “Finally, we are bringing Empatheatre to the conference halls.”

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