The Changing Climates Festival from Highly Sprung is the UK’s only physical theatre festival exclusively for children and young people. Having started over 10 years ago, it returns to the Belgrade for 2022 - now focussing in on the theme of the climate crisis. Each evening features a programme of original environment-themed work from local school groups, followed by a headline show of Silence Amplified from Sprung Advance.
The Changing Climates Festival was first conceived of in response to the pervasive climate crisis. It provides transformative opportunities for 400 young people aged 11-19, harnessing the energy they hold towards environmental problems. The festival is led by the Coventry Young Producers Collective, with a busy programme of workshops and performance. Championing theatre as a creative response to these issues and motivating audiences to make a change.
This year’s festival views the climate crisis through the lens of ‘voice’, examining the influence and impact of young people’s opinions and how they are heard, or more likely not heard.
What impact does freedom of speech/expression or the lack of it have in promoting or contributing to climate change?
What say do we really have?
And who’s listening anyway?
Silence Amplified is this year’s headline performance, devised by Highly Sprung’s acclaimed youth performance group Sprung Advance.
The piece examines how we can find expression and develop opinion and language where we are denied a voice.
Is voice only ever spoken or are there other ways to speak and listen?
Set in a world where air pollution has gone beyond crisis point and has shifted life into new ways of being… Breathing is now taxed, and words spoken are charged by the second. In this new world, young people are forced underground to find new ways to exist, grow and express themselves.
Can they still be part of change? Can hope still exist when words do not?
Learn more about Highly Sprung here.