Theatre in Review: This Clement World (St. Ann's Warehouse)

	Photo: Pavel Antonov

Inclement weather prevented me from seeing Cynthia Hopkins' new show before it opened, an irony that would not be lost on her, since, by her own account, she has turned away from creating performances about her personal demons -- bizarre Thomas Pynchon-style fantasies rooted in her alcoholism, and brutal confessional pieces about her troubled family history -- to focus on the most significant issue facing mankind today. Invited to spend several weeks sailing in the Arctic with a crew of climate scientists, activists, and artists, all of them on a mission to explore the effects of climate change, Hopkins has gone through something of a sea-change herself. "For many years now, I've been consumed with my own private melodrama," she says; in This Clement World, she presents herself as a tiny figure in a much larger drama.

The format of This Clement World is classic Hopkins, combining passages of direct address with elaborate projection sequences and songs delivered in her distinctive bluesy wail, but the results are markedly different. (She had apparently intended to film a documentary about her sailing experience, but the footage she shot wasn't usable.) Stunning visuals of the Arctic are coupled with voiceover narration describing the revelatory effect that this alien landscape had on Hopkins' sense of herself. Speaking in the voices of her fellow crew members -- the stoic captain who steers the ship through dangerous waters; the activist who warns that, in terms of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we are already well past the tipping point; and, most amusingly, the performance artist who "channels fictional characters and creates environments for them," whatever that means -- she skillfully sketches in the experience of being in a remote corner of the world with a cadre of near-strangers. Hopkins, who always has a full deck of personalities to play with, also appears as the ghost of an American Indian woman, killed in 1864, who views the possible ruin of modern civilization with notably dry eyes; a woman of the far future, when humanity has been reduced to a cluster of tiny communities; and the German scientist who thinks that any future ecological disaster will simply be the earth reasserting its control over humanity. "A catastrophe?" he asks. "Not for the sperm whale."

Surprisingly, given the fact that This Clement World sees the planet headed toward the big finish, it has a quality of exultation, partly because Hopkins thinks it is thrilling to be alive at such a decisive moment and partly because of her songs, which begin as random collections of blue notes and build into powerful anthems -- love songs, really -- about the glories of the natural world. With backup from seven musicians and four singers, and aided by ravishing vocal and orchestral arrangements, the songs turn what would otherwise be a requiem for the human race into a powerfully affirmative experience.

It's a little bit jarring to see Hopkins drop the mandarin persona of her previous shows, seeking to directly engage the audience's attention. Gifted as she is with stage presence, she doesn't seem entirely easy in the role. (In the past, the more confessional aspects of her shows seemed to come from some remote location; one had a sense of being held at arm's length.) At one point, she admits to "trying to tell a story I don't know how to tell" and at times the strain shows. She disappears from the stage for disconcertingly long periods, letting Jeff's Sugg's superb projections and the narration take over; as good as these are, you miss the presence of the living performer. At times, she seems to be casting about for a way forward; this is especially true in a series of sequences featuring a character who arrives via UFO and adopts the identity of "a fairly amiable dude," a good old boy in a plaid shirt and baseball cap, to talk about climate change from an alien's perspective. The character is grating and Hopkins' mannerisms are distracting. Also, the piece wanders at times, giving you time to reflect that maybe This Clement World is really a disguised lecture on Climate Change 101, not a "theatricalized song cycle," as the materials have it, and as such, it isn't nearly as rich as her knottier, more self-involved pieces.

Still, it's a fine thing to see a major artist grappling with this issue and This Clement World has many spellbinding passages, aided by Sugg's beautiful lighting and Jamie McElhinney's roof-raising sound design. As is always the case with Hopkins, every aspect of the production is meticulously achieved.

There's another, slightly more troubling aspect to the production, which is hardly the artist's fault: One can't help wondering if, in presenting her piece to young, left-leaning audiences at St. Ann's, Hopkins isn't preaching to an already heavily convinced choir. There were moments during the performance when I felt an air of self-congratulation fall over the theatre. Still, everyone has to start somewhere, and she is doing what she can with her considerable talents. Furthermore, you never know what the consequences of any artwork will be. Even if she convinces only a few more viewers of the importance of the climate-change crisis, it will be much more than most of us have done.--David Barbour