Digital Traces presents various characters inhabiting the universe of The Year of No Return. Through film, sound, movement and text presented over four vodcast episodes and one Zoom reading of a key strand in the narrative, Digital Traces invites the audience to experience various facets of the play, and poses the question: How far are you willing to go to save the planet?
Play Reading – Su & Luis
15 Aug, 8:00pm
Su, a young Singaporean volunteer for environmental causes, travels to the Philippines in the hopes of educating Filipinos on climate change. She meets Luis, a villager who was initially resistant to her efforts to reach out to him. They become friends, but as they embark upon their individual journeys as activists, they discover how far each would go for their cause—even if it means taking the route fraught with conflict and danger.
Featuring Lian Sutton as Luis and Siti Khalijah Zainal as Su.
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Vodcast Episode 1 – Solitude/Solidarity
15 Aug, 12:00pm
An interdisciplinary interpretation of a climate protest choreographed remotely. Can collective power in solidarity be formed even when we are apart?
Note: This video is meant to be viewed in portrait mode.
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Vodcast Episode 2 – Actors’ Confessions
15 Sep, 12:00pm
In the process of creating The Year of No Return, we asked the actors to step out of their characters, to offer their own inner thoughts about the climate crisis and how the work has affected their own relationship with the environment.
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Vodcast Episode 3 – Maya’s Dream
15 Oct, 12:00pm
Maya, a discredited marine biologist, finds herself in a dreamscape amidst animals who can communicate with her. As she revisits her fall from grace due to her exposing companies for their role in bleaching coral reefs, she ruminates on humanity’s relationship with a disintegrating natural world.
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Vodcast Episode 4 – A Choice Over 12 Years
15 Nov, 12:00pm
What part does Singapore play as we hurtle at catastrophic speed towards the year of no return? A digital impression of our island state’s relationship with nature, industry and climate change. Featuring excerpts of interviews with Professor Benjamin Horton, Director at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
More information here: sifa.sg/programmes/free/digital-traces-the-year-of-no-return
