Longitude

by elastic future and Hellicar & Lewis (US/UK/NG/ES)

Part of LIFT 2014 World Premiere

11 June – 23 July

Online performances: 9,16, 23 June, 6.00pm

Daily 12 noon – 9pm

What would you do if your taps ran dry and you no longer had easy access to clean, clear drinking water?

Digital theatre pioneers elastic future, playwright Tim Wright, and an artistic team based in Barcelona, Lagos and London present a new international and interactive performance experience using the widely available, free to access networks and social-media platforms we use every day.

Longitude is a multi-platform theatre experience running across three episodic performances that use Google Hangouts to connect performers in Barcelona, Lagos and London. Set in a near-future when water has become a scarce resource, Longitude will tell the story of five characters endeavouring to smuggle and sell water to Nigeria, and make a killing out of climate change.

The Longitude gallery installation at Watermans by digital creatives Hellicar & Lewis has been commissioned to complement the online prformances and invite audiences to interact with the unfolding stories.

As part of the fiction of the show the team have created the Academy of Water and Spiritual Health (AWASH), a cult- like organisation who hold water sacred, and secretly run a black-market operation in iceberg smuggling.

AWASH is running a campaign to gether user-generated content via twitter using the hashtag #AWASH. The AWASH Academy’s ‘Record of Change’ movement encourages people to share photos or videos with signs of climate change, big or small in their lives.

As part of the fictional online experience there are two twitter accounts set up to build an ambient narrative around the performance. These are:

@SeaCaptainA

A silent character from the performance who sails an ocean-liner collecting cargo, shipping characters and transports icebergs secretly. Captain Awash is tweeting his journey, and the effects of climate change that he witnesses on his journey.

@awashacademy

The Academy of Water and Spiritual health (AWASH); characters in the performance who hold water scared, and secretly run a black-market operation in iceberg smuggling.

The three online performance episodes will be broadcast live on the LIFT Longitude webpage — http://goo.gl/uBCNYX – as follows:

Episode 1 – 9 June 6.00pm

City analyst Nerida Thompson has dug up an amazing prospect in Lagos, Nigeria, where a desperate need for water could end up netting Nerida millions — but only the strange leaders of the Academy of Water and Spiritual Health (AWASH) have the connections to make it happen.

Episode 2 – 16 June 6.00pm

A deal with the Academy is struck, and Amenawon’s plan to bring a huge shipment of water to Lagos is within reach. But who can you really trust when millions of pounds are at stake?

Episode 3 – 23 June 6.00pm

London and Lagos are waiting for their ships to come in, and Barcelona is pulling the strings. Will the water conspiracy succeed? Or is it too much to hope that five people can change the world.

The online performances are accompanied by an alternate reality website for the Academy:www.awashacademy.com. This website serves as a space for audience members to interact with the characters via social media and also contribute stories of the changing climate in their home towns.

Join AWASH Academy’s ‘Record of Change’ movement by sharing photos or videos of signs of climate change, big or small, in your area. Tweet using the hashtag #AWASH

elastic future: Erin Gllley, Marc Blinder

Barcelona creative team: Cris Blanco, Aimar Perez Gali

Lagos creative team: Ifeoma Fafunwa, Toyin Oshinaike

London creative team: Emily Altneu, Kiron Chakraborty, Tim Wright, Hellicar & Lewis

Longitude was commissioned for The Space by LIFT, Abandon Normal Devices, British Council Nigeria and Watermans in partnership with Google Art Project. Commissioned as part of the Imagine 2020 network, with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.