Generation Hot Program A - Tweet-A-Long Review

Below is a Twitter synopsis of Generation Hot Program A - I’ve tried not to have spoilers, but you may want to skip reading if you intend to go see this performance. The show includes three separate performances by young artists who are responding to our current climate crisis through the creation of new performances. They have been mentored by The Only Animal’s co-founder Eric Rhys Miller and mia susan amir of The Story We Be.

@AllysonMcGrane: Waiting for the start of Generation Hot Program A! Three shows in one based on ideas about global warming from emerging artists.

@AllysonMcGrane: The line is forming - only 10 minutes til show starts! #VanFringe

@AllysonMcGrane: I hear all this backstage noise - venue is BYOV “H” in the Anderson Street Parking Lot. #VanFringe

@AllysonMcGrane: Show titles are: #1 Disposable Generation (two actors), #2  Amber (three actors) & #3 Umizoko (five actors) I think.

@AllysonMcGrane: A bunch of young kids just showed up - I'm sitting in the back so I don't bother anyone with my phone light.

@AllysonMcGrane: Start of Disposable Generation - two actors enter in mid-20th century clothing - something strange is delivered.

@AllysonMcGrane: They were happy but now seem frightened. They fight. Then they hear an announcement about the newest greatest thing - plastics!

@AllysonMcGrane: In a charming tiny white kitchen, bustling commences. And smiling in a fake way too.

@AllysonMcGrane: The woman seems pleased to serve food in plastic dishes to a man who has returned from work/school.

@AllysonMcGrane: Upon finishing eating, the plastic is thrown away. More food in plastic replaces it. (Loving the pink & white checkered apron btw!)

@AllysonMcGrane: I wonder if the food is plastic? Doesn't look tasty to me.

@AllysonMcGrane: Hmm... A plastic baby emerges... With a yellow bowtie... The obvious outcome of so much plastic is plastic people. Are we all that now?

@AllysonMcGrane: Next up is Amber - scene change ensues. The music is much calmer than the hyper-happy "plastic" music!

@AllysonMcGrane: A son comes in - he questions the heat - tells his mother to keep the heat down (they are too near their quota).

@AllysonMcGrane: Apparently they are eating breakfast for supper. The mother is displeased.

@AllysonMcGrane: Something new emerges - the mother pulls it out of a cupboard - it's fish! But now that is illegal. The son is very angry with her.

@AllysonMcGrane: I hear laughter nearby & seagulls too - using an outdoor venue means you gotta take whatever sound bleeds in.

@AllysonMcGrane: The fish comes from the son's uncle - he was fishing illegally. Fishing is banned due to low fish stocks.

@AllysonMcGrane: His mother is nagging him. She wants new things, but her son says they can repair what they have. A little girl runs in.

@AllysonMcGrane: Her name is Amber - the son's daughter who runs to her grandmother right away.

@AllysonMcGrane: The son is very concerned about his little girl - she ran away and wants to stay here.

@AllysonMcGrane: The mother asks her son if he remembers Chinese New Year's dinners. He kind of does, but seems uninterested in her reminisces.

@AllysonMcGrane: What happened here? Why can they not eat as much? Or replace old things?

@AllysonMcGrane: The son says they are living in a dignified way now, that this world is like this now. The generational divide is clear - they cannot agree.

@AllysonMcGrane: Where are the better days asks the mother? I want more.

@AllysonMcGrane: Wish I could understand what they are saying in Chinese. No subtitles!

@AllysonMcGrane: He works in government for environmental change. He is a believer - has faith in the future but the vision is different.

@AllysonMcGrane: Will I feel like this mother in the future? Am I in the last generations before we accept the environmental changes must dictate our lives?

@AllysonMcGrane: The little girl wakes up. She is wearing colourful striped socks & monkey face slippers.

@AllysonMcGrane: A new day dawns what will it bring?

@AllysonMcGrane: Scene change - Oh no! Nuclear breach - we need to evacuate & await further instructions.

@AllysonMcGrane: I was just handed an instruction card. Worldwide crisis!

@AllysonMcGrane: No one seems particularly concerned. The announcement about the nuclear breach continues to play. We wait.

@AllysonMcGrane: Now we learn that the radiation was contained - we can return. We slowly do.

@AllysonMcGrane: We seem to be in Japan - learning how the people can live here now.

@AllysonMcGrane: Jane's mother is a soybean farmer - she misses the taste of fish. From her childhood.

@AllysonMcGrane: Jane's mother mentions another daughter, Kimiko. That must be the third actor onstage. She speaks of the traders - is afraid of them.

@AllysonMcGrane: They make food in front of us.

@AllysonMcGrane: I now get sent to a station with an Ipad. A video plays.

@AllysonMcGrane: Reminding me of an art exhibit rather than a play at this point.

@AllysonMcGrane: I was told to text a question & received a reply asking if I remembered a certain historical event.

@AllysonMcGrane: Now i have moved to a new station & am watching a film in Japanese with subtitles.

@AllysonMcGrane: It is a series of diary entries - seems to be from a teenaged girl though we cannot see her face.

@AllysonMcGrane: The show ends here.