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By Nicolas Billon
POLAR BEARS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicholas Billon is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter, known for plays such as The Elephant Song, Iceland and Butcher. He has won awards such as the Governor-General’s Award for Drama, the Canadian Screen Award, and the Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award. In college, he studied Creative writing, and was the first playwright that was admitted to the Birmingham Conservatory at the Stratford Festival. Billon was a graduate of the Canadian Film Festival Prime Time TV program, and wrote for many Canadian television programs, such as CBC’s WWII Spy Series X Company and the reboot of Street Legal.
ACTIONS
Our action is To Interrupt.
With this performance, we aim to interrupt our audience's daily routine to bring attention to the issues outlined above, and to encourage those who want to make a change to contact their representatives and/or donate to organizations that will help make a change.
WHY THIS PLAY NOW?
We believe in the power comedy has to shed light on situations that require dire solutions. However, as an audience member, it is too easy to watch comedy and then remove ourselves from the issue presented because “it was just theater”. The Polar Bears by Nicholas Billon is a perfect medium between humor and humanity. Using the metaphor of anthropomorphization, Billon calls his audience to action by having us empathize with a couple of fourth-wall breaking bears, who smoke cigarettes and eat pizza. We chose to present this play as a disruptive performance because even if we as humans don’t always feel the effects of the melting glaciers, it is a disruptive change that affects the polar bears. Despite the common belief that the nonhuman and the human “worlds” are separate, they affect each other accordingly because we all cohabitate in the same realm of existence. We believe in Billon’s message and facilitate in his call to action- using comedy as a powerful literary tool to disrupt our daily lives in order to think about human influence on the world around us.
EDUCATION
What is causing the icebergs to melt?
There are many causes for the melting glaciers, like the use of fossil fuels and emissions that build up greenhouse gasses (CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide) in the atmosphere. This buildup has been occurring for decades, but really was put into high gear during and past the industrial revolution (early 19th century), and has been getting higher and higher since.
What are the effects on the natural world?
The buildup of greenhouse gasses are causing the glaciers to melt (obviously), but what happens when the glaciers melt? The sea levels will rise due to the runoff from the glaciers, and the overall world temp will increase, as the icebergs help regulate the heat that comes from both the sun and the warmth we create within our atmosphere. Because of the rising sea levels, communities and towns will experience flooding, and fishing companies that rely on fish patterns will fail due to the change in pattern. It’s also not just the icebergs, the entire world temperature has gone up significantly.
What are its effects on the animals inhabiting the arctic
The increase in water changes the pathway of the fish that are vital to sustaining an ecosystem in the arctic. Polar bears and other arctic animals are losing both their food source and their habitat. Since polar bears have had to retreat their arctic home to land, which is causing conflict between human life and polar bears. In Northeast Russia, people have started a “polar bear patrol” to make sure that the polar bears and the humans do not interact. If we continue to abuse the greenhouse gasses, the polar bears and other arctic animals like walrus will coincide with human life, as they have no habitat left to inhabit.
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