What do you get when you mix two cabin-fevered humans wintering over in Antarctica with an egg-less male Emperor Penguin? A harrowing, romantic story of frustrated hopes and melted ice caps, played out on stage in New Zealand's first ‘off the grid' theatre work, Heat.

The play opens in November at Wellington's Bats Theatre, the centrepiece of theatre innovation in New Zealand's capital and will be the first theatre piece in New Zealand powered by renewable- or at least self-sufficient - energy sources. "To emulate the Antarctica experience, our intention is to experience the precariousness of power supplies," says playwright Lynda Chanwai Earle.

What does theatre teach us about climate change? Theatre can be a brilliant forum for exploring the subtleties of physical and emotional human intention, and a play set in Antarctica is no different. Chanwai-Earle is a well-established Eurasian playwright used to exploring personal and political issues in her work. She uses the scientific issues of ozone depletion and melting ice caps as a backdrop for critically exploring the dynamic between human aspirations and those of other species. Heat brings up issues of fertility, human will, desolation and isolation.

Heat is set in 1999, just before the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. "I wanted to show humanity in a survival capsule, at a time when the idea of human effects on the environment were really beginning to be felt - the ozone hole had became apparent, sea ice was reported to be melting, the level of krill that feed underneath the ice reducing, the breeding rates of birds dropping..." says Chanwai Earle. The couple at the centre of Heat are attempting to come to terms with the mortality of humankind as well as deal with their personal grief.

In terms of narrative, Heat is inspired by the 1943 novel ‘Ballad of the Sad Café' by Carson McCullers. Chanwai-Earle has transplanted this love triangle into a hut on the Ross Dependency, telling a story of love between scientists John and Stella, and a male Emperor Penguin.  Their relationship, confined enough by the temperature outside and dimensions of their hut, is pressured to the breaking point by satellite communications and webcams. And in high dramatic style, only two of the characters depart the story alive... 

The Emperor Penguin is one of the species in which the male keeps the egg warm in the depths of dark winter as the mother takes off to stock up on food, returning four months later for the arrival of their chick. The dramatic twist in Heat is that the Penguin (played by Brian Hotter) has lost his identity for this winter - he's eggless. Enter a New Zealand icon- the egg shaped rugby football brought to Antarctica by John, and the trouble begins.

There is an ongoing fascination with Antarctica in New Zealand, a proximate protectiveness felt about the great white continent. I'm aware of a huge line up of New Zealanders, including many artists, keen to explore the ice. There's something about surviving in the harshest conditions under one's own steam that really brings the pioneer out in the psyche. Composer Gareth Farr, who will create music for Heat, has been the recent recipient of a NZ Government-based Artists to Antarctica fellowship. For Lynda Chanwai Earle, who hopes to get South at some point soon, the Antarctic is "like the world's thermometer...setting Heat in that harsh landscape amplifies humanity's descent."

John and Stella's imagined wintering over on the Ross Ice shelf is based on the experience of a real Australian couple, the Claypoles, who wintered over at Mawson (Australian Antarctic Division) in a ‘Gadget hut' in 1999, in total isolation with nothing but a generator, wind turbine and solar panels, and a constant feed to an educational website. 

The Heat team may not be able to erect the same wind turbines as the Claypoles -  Bats Theatre is right on a main street in central Wellington and, ironically, local council consents are a little harder to gain than in the deep south. Yet the Heat producers are well on their way to getting to the first off-grid status: they have been loaned solar panels from Mitsubishi (BDT), and a wind turbine by Eco Innovation. They are still on the search for a generator that can run on vegetable oil - all offers gratefully considered. Once the show is energy -independent, there are huge positive implications in the flexibility and transportability of the show.  Have show, will travel...

Read more about Heat here and direct any queries to Marjorie McKee.

Further Reading:

• Letters from Antarctica: Living History and Dealing with T3
• Letters from Antarctica: Interview with Penguin Researcher David Ainley
• Letters from Antarctica: A Night in a Harrowing Storm
• Letters from Antarctica - Interview with a Climate Modeller
• Letters from Antarctica: The ANDRILL Project
• Letters from Antarctica: A Night on the Ice
• Letters from Antarctica: Education Ambassadors