Leeds nature reserve to host climate change play - bbc.com

Leeds nature reserve to host climate change play - BBC News

Leeds nature reserve to host climate change play

- Published

The site of a former coal mine, which was transformed into a nature reserve, is to be used for a play featuring a cast of more than 100 people.

The premiere of Nest, a play about climate change, will be performed at St Aidan's RSPB Nature Park in Leeds.

The event is a collaboration between National Youth Theatre and Leeds 2023, a year-long celebration of the city.

Paul Roseby, artistic director of National Youth Theatre (NYT) said it would "give hope to a fragile earth."

Mr Roseby said Nest was part of the NYT's art and activism programme which unlocked facts and stories about climate crisis "by animating locations and unusual buildings in a dramatic way".

Set in the year 2050, the deadline of The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty to reach net zero, the story follows 20-year-old Skyler as she attends a bird-watching festival following the loss of her nature-loving grandmother.

A spokesperson said it was conceived in response to an NYT survey which identified the climate crisis as the issue young people were "most interested in exploring theatrically".

Production at the former open cast mine ended in December 2002.

The 400-hectare site was given a new lease as a nature park in May 2013, with 7.5miles (12km) of footpaths, bridleways and cycle paths.

The opening performance later will be the first time the reedbeds, wetlands, meadows and woodland, will have provided the backdrop to a theatrical show, which organisers said had been timed to avoid disturbance to wildlife and migration patterns.

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