A modern parable of man’s insatiable greed and the destruction left in its wake.
Marking the second part of their Mining Trilogy series, Pleasant Island turns theatremakers Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere’s attention to the tiny island republic of Nauru. Surrounded entirely by water in the middle of Micronesia, Nauru’s fascinating history makes for a riveting case study, literally once being the richest island in the world per capita thanks to its abundance of phosphate, extracted and sold via a mining business purchased from their former colonial masters. Yet, that wealth wouldn’t last forever, and as the resources dried up, the seemingly irreversible damage caused to the land left it with a massive hole from mining, barren of agriculture and total reliance on imports to sustain its tiny population.
Where Silke and Hannes come in then, is on tourist visas, as they seek to find out more about the impact mining has left on the denizens of Nauru, many of whom express a profound sadness and frustration at the state their home has been left in, yet cannot bear to leave. Through recorded interviews, transcripts, and video footage of the island, Silke and Hannes capture a strange sense of sadness, longing and regret as these ordinary people live out their lives. The interviewees are often entertaining, or at least, hold some kind of bleak humour that gives each one distinct personalities despite not being seen, and together, embody a kind of mourning over the loss of their once ‘Pleasant Island’.
Things get even more complicated when Silke and Hannes reveal how, in a bid to escape from their new poverty, Nauru also became an offshore immigration detention facility, where illegal refugees would be indefinitely detained upon entry to Australia. Meeting some of these detainees, Silke and Hannes also highlight and expose the feeling of loneliness they experience on this isolated island, their phones initially confiscated to cut them off from communicating with the outside world, and taking an immense toll on their mental health. These detainees’ accounts are juxtaposed against footage of Australian authorities and politicians taking a hardline stance against such refugees, highlighting the lack of empathy and almost cruel, horrifying situation they find themselves in upon being detained.
What makes Pleasant Island so captivating isn’t just the subject matter, but also its unique presentation style. Much like in Mining Stories, at no point do Silke and Hannes ever speak, instead operating the entire show live via content displayed on their two phones, projected onto two screens side by side. There is something charmingly guerrilla about the presentation, where they literally go to YouTube and search up videos (complete with ads), to literally typing a prologue live in their Notes app, or even opening up X (formerly Twitter) to find a specific image they zoom in on.
All of this also takes immense coordination to achieve on Silke and Hannes’ part, each one taking turns to open up a medley of apps and timing it just right such that the intended effect is achieved. Throughout, quirky audio apps also play a huge role, as they produce almost surreal background music and incidental noise to accompany the interviews and immerse us in the world of Nauru. Silke, for example, opens up a digital slime function producing squishy sounds while Hannes zooms in on Google Earth to locate Nauru. As gimmicky as it sounds, once one settles in to the format, the effect is surprisingly emotional, each interview and story enhanced and our imagination more keenly activated, and visually, we are always kept engaged.
Phones, of course, also become a recurring motif in Pleasant Island, not only through their absence from detainees, but also in how phones and phone batteries contain rare metals and materials that can only be obtained through mining. This realisation leads Pleasant Island to reach its final horrifying reveal – that Nauru has somehow cycled back to mining once again, as purportedly sustainable deepsea mining company DeepGreen signs an agreement with them to plunder the waters around them. Even with a traumatic history with mining that continues to haunt them, it seems that greed is what propels them to repeat their mistakes.
By its end, Pleasant Island makes it clear that Nauru has essentially become a victim of colonisation, capitalism, migration and ecological distress that they seem doomed to repeat over and over again. We feel not only for the people who have no say in how Nauru is being used, subject to economical forces, but also we feel the pain of the Earth and the environment, a resource clearly taken for granted as we continue to exploit it, endlessly.
When Silke brings up a WhatsApp conversation with a detainee in Nauru, she expresses concern for the detainee’s mental health and how trapped in a hole she feels, with no one to save her. We are left to wonder just how much damage our greed has cost the planet and its inhabitants, how little care we seem to have for the people and places around us, and how helpless we feel in a world that is intent on growing and profiting forever. The Earth owes us nothing, and in return, we ought to find a way to coexist and continue to exist without exhausting it once and for all.
Photo credit: Nuno Direitinho
Mining Stories ran from 28th to 29th July, Pleasant Island from 2nd to 3rd August, and Out of the Blue from 5th to 6th August, all at the Esplanade Theatre Studio.
The Studios 2023 runs from July to September 2023 at the Esplanade. Full programme and tickets available here
Production Credits:
| By & With Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere Dramaturge Dries Douibi Sound Mixing Lieven Dousselaere Technical Anne Meeussen & Piet Depoortere Production CAMPO Co-Production Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Spring Festival Utrecht, Beursschouwburg, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, Veem House For Performance, Spielart & De Brakke Grond Residencies Beursschouwburg, De Grote Post, KAAP, Kunstencentrum Buda, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, STUK & Veem House For Performance, LOD With The Support Of Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie & KAAP Many Thanks To All Collocutors In Nauru |
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