Universe in a Box

Concept, Direction, Design

A Thesis Production by Max Sarkowsky

Written and Performed by Mekael Daniel

Climate Anxiety Brought to the Stage…

M is born into the future we fear. Climate Change has devastated much of the Earth, leaving her generation locked in special institutions designed to train them to solve the problems we could not. Faced with this immense task, the children begin developing a survival mechanism; the ability to phase in and out of their own pocket dimension.

This is where we meet M. From between the walls of her dimension we lurk and observe her thoughts, memories, and anxieties told through monologues, movement pieces and puppetry.

The idea of the personal pocket dimension sprung from my own experience with anxiety, specifically panic attacks. I imagined a world where climate anxiety had become so all consuming that humans literally manifested their own dimensions as a form of panic attack. I am very interested in the topic of mental health around climate change. We are all in denial about our changing world to some extent. If we weren’t, more would be done already to stop and reverse the effects we’ve caused so far! Theatre is a great medium to push ourselves out of our comfort zones, and into the zone where we can learn something and create change in our minds, which is where change must always start.

Photos by Josh Birndorf

Norberg Studio Theater