Metra: A Climate Revolution Play with Songs
Metra: A Climate Revolution Play with Songs is a new work about the transformative power of collective action in the face of the climate crisis.
The piece was created through exploration and adaptation of a myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the original myth of “Erysicthon,” a King destroys a sacred grove, and then is cursed by the goddess Ceres with unquenchable hunger. He sells off his entire kingdom for food until there’s nothing left to sell…except his daughter, Metra. Erysicthon’s hunger cannot be sated no matter how much he consumes, and the myth ends with him alone on a barren field, eating his own body down to nothing but a pair of clacking jaws. This initial story sparked investigation into our capitalistic model of power that prioritizes wealth hoarding, dominance, and consumption. The creation process also focused on envisioning collective and regenerative models of human organizing.
In our musical, the year is 2045. Despite lip service toward climate action, the fossil fuel industry continues to thrive. Shit’s bad. The rich choose to ignore it, insulated in air-conditioned Bubble communities and continuing to reap the benefits of disaster capitalism. But in a roadside bar on the Outside, a group of revolutionaries—a journalist, a hedge fund manager, and an ancient Greek tree nymph—are about to bring down the power grid through ancient magic, collective action, and a new myth for a new world. It’s a rallying cry, a manifesto for transformative change, and a rocking time.
“The potency of Metra is in its spillage onto the streets, its seepage into your awareness as audiences reintegrate into reality at the conclusion of an epic (in both the Grecian and sci-fi sense) two hours. Walking out to blaring sirens on trash-strewn streets next to artificial, glorified indoor foliage meant to lure LES gentrifiers, the wealth and environmental disparity of a present-day context is inescapable…For Metra, the myth and might of human history and creation prove the play really is the thing.” –Broadway DNA