LOOP Winter 2020 Edition issue 44

Whats On

Hagan, HouseFire explores the threat of the

global climate and ecological crisis via a band of endangered animals who protest and spread their message through song.

A trio of endangered animals form a band to protest the climate and ecological crisis.

Just because they’re animals doesn’t mean this is Disney. Leo the Snow Leopard lead singer is raging against the annihilation of their world, Ginger the Orangutan on keys has her own tale to tell about how deforestation has destroyed her family, while Alan the Elephant is keeping time on the drums. But their newly formed band ‘HouseFire’ is under threat from their corporate capitalist manager who wants them to pander to the capitalist system they are so keen to destabilize. On the face of it entering Britain's Got Talent seems like a great way to reach more people with their message, although it puts a strain on the already fractious relationships between them, and is it all just too little too late...P Burton-Morgan, who earlier this year won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for musical theatre book writing for In the Willows – The Hip Hop musical (which toured the UK in 2019), said “It's a beast of a subject matter - the climate and ecological crisis - and the potential for descending into earnest preaching is very real. But I hope we have created a rare thing; combining the painful urgency of the crisis with the political complexities, all wrapped up in epic banging tunes to rock out to. Plus it wouldn't be a Metta show if we didn't end with hope! So there's also hope. Always.”

Eleanor Kane performs on the album as ‘Ginger the Orangutan’, Robin Simoes da Silva as ‘Leo the Snow Leopard’ and Lemuel Knights as ‘Alan the Elephant’.

Full track listing is as follows: Not The New Normal, Miles and Miles, Do Less, Don’t Push The World Away, Now We Start

Award-winning Metta Theatre is one of the UK’s leading mid-scale touring companies – making exceptional theatre and opera that represents and celebrates the diversity of our world. They are known for combining emotionally powerful performances with imaginative theatricality and striking visual style. After their smash hit street-dance Jungle Book (Theatre Royal Windsor & UK tour), circus-musical Little Mermaid (Theatre By The Lake & UK tour) and In The Willows (Exeter Northcott & UK tour) Metta Theatre bring you another original British musical, following the release of the cast album of The Rhythmics in July 2020. Other productions include Mouthful (Trafalgar Studios) and Arab Nights (Soho Theatre & UK tour).

Artistic Director and theatre designer Will Reynolds has a MSC in Electrical Engineering from Oxford University. He trained with the Carbon Literacy project and sits on the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Climate & Ecological Emergency Commission.

Award-winning writer and Artistic Director P Burton-Morgan has a degree in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from Oxford University, and is a celebrated director and an inspirational public speaker and workshop facilitator. In 2019 Metta founded the Sustainable Touring Group as part of the inaugural cohort of the Arts Council England & Julie's Bicycle Accelerator Programme for Creative Climate Leadership, was an early supporter of Climate Declares Emergency and is a pioneer of sustainability in the UK theatre sector.

www.mettatheatre.co.uk https://bit.ly/2UsUYPp

contactus@loopmagazine.net

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