Rebekah Smith
“The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.”
When the earth cries out, humanity is affected. No matter how much we try to deny our reliance on the natural world, with every passing year it become clearer and clearer that we are not gods, and we are not in control.
The Santa Ana is a multi-media performance that uses regular extreme weather events as a platform to explore human connection to the environment. Crossed Wires, a theatre company from Manchester, combines surreal physicality with audio design and projection to present an abstract yet palpable human phenomena.
If you’re not familiar, Santa Anas are dry and strong winds that sweep across California up to 25 times a year, and they are often believed to affect human mood and behaviour. This has been catalogued in many memoirs and novels over the last century and Crossed Wires utilize these anecdotes to their fullest effect. Scenes and tableaus are interspersed with readings from these texts, which serve as prologues and footnotes to the overall narrative.
The opening moments of the performance introduce us to the multiple mediums Crossed Wires employ. The ensemble stand enraptured over a plastic cup of water, with Associate Director and Camera Technician Laura May Brunk projecting this on a large white cloth on the back wall. Around them keyboards, laptops, instruments and microphones scatter the stage. The cup in question is ready to burst – with a dome of water cresting the top, moments away from breaking tension. The ensemble plays a game; taking turns dropping water in from another container into this full vessel, waiting on baited breathes for it to come crashing down.
Then, the Santa Ana is introduced. Cracking speakers burst with grating white noise, filling the room with painful, disruptive interference. There are several moments like this, where the sound commands the space and forces us to acknowledge some oncoming apocalypse. It is a credit to the musicians Flynn McHardy and Rory Greig, who torture the characters in the play and reminds them of the higher power they try desperately to reject.
Crossed Wires pushes us to consider what we truly are as beings inhabiting earth. We are inescapably intertwined with our environment, and the ways we interact with our world defines what is natural. The Santa Ana presents us as mechanistic: machines fulfilling predetermined effects and responses, incapable of enacting a free-will or restraint that can overpower the world’s natural order. Elemental powers captivate the audience: supernatural winds, disturbed earthy oils, searing fires, and untameable waters weave themselves into characters’ lives. It is remarkable how the company can transform lit birthday candles, oozing ink and cups of water into the full, gripping force of Mother Nature’s powers.
Our climate emergency is viewed broadly, as the show expertly weaves extreme weather events with human destruction. Characters live amongst wildfires and winds as they drill for oil and consider their right to disrupt natural processes. The story eloquently explores our divided opinions on oncoming threats and fears. Should we be resourceful in the short term and make progress with what the earth has to offer? Or do we acknowledge our small part in a larger ecosystem and beware future consequences?
Climate anxiety has paralysed our society in recent years. Activism hit a standstill during the pandemic and our economies dare not risk the investment in carbon reduction. The oncoming storm of The Santa Anaallegorises humanity’s inactivity. The characters repeatedly bury their heads in the sand – at worst ignoring or running away, and at best praying it will all blow over.
The performance expertly reflects our collective emotional exhaustion. The technician and musicians move like natural, malevolent forces around the actors as both observers and perpetrators of the approaching chaos. The two actors are propelled through the wind and its effects, unable to find the confidence or understanding of how to fight the madness.
Stella Cohen and Alex Uzoka, the primary performers, are exceptional – taking on the stress and anxiety of numerous Californians through the piece. They deftly change between characters, eliciting both disgust and empathy where appropriate. The animalistic physical performances portrayed in certain moments brings to life the desperation experienced by the snakes, coyotes and other local wildlife we cannot see on stage. The Santa Ana explores our breaking point. People act erratically, children become unmanageable and suicide rates rise. As people wait for the winds, the tension creates distrust and corruption. We are enraptured by Cohen’s and Uzoka’s performances and yet there is no unity between them – a striking coolness against the fiery backdrop. They are hauntingly detached from another, desperately seeking a connection they cannot find, and this creates several visceral, painful moments. As we try to disconnect from the world, they try to hide from each other, running from an unseeable, unbearable pain.
Laurie Bayley-Higgins’ (Director/Writer) and Amy Townsend-Lowcook’s (Designer) are seamless. Moments of absolute genius burst from scene transitions. Crossed Wires are masters at turning one of the clumsiest parts of theatre into some of the most gripping moments of the piece. Nothing is wasted in this performance. Every word, action, and visual intertwines with one another, bolstering the performance and reminding us of the overall theme of connection.
The Santa Ana is a cohesive, intentional and powerful production that forces us to consider the unexplainable ties humanity has to the natural world. The climate emergency is something we can neither escape nor deny and it is only by listening to and supporting each other that we can forge a way through the storm. This show is not for the weak and will draw you into the catastrophe and panic of our most vulnerable moments as the tension breaks and the cup overflows. This powerful ensemble delivers a spectacle that is gripping, haunting and real.
Recommended Drink: Sea Breeze cocktail (self-explanatory, really)
Catch The Santa Ana until 11th August at C Arts Venue Alto at 13:35. Tickets available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Jake Mace
