DATE: October 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th at 6:00 PM
LOCATION: Teatersalen, William Wains Gade 11, Refshaleøen, Copenhagen – see location
WHAT: Performance
TICKET: 100 kr

We speak for Nature.
The Forests’ Trial is a fictional trial performance, inviting the audience as representatives of Nature to take on the role of judges pointing out the responsibles for two environmental disasters: the pollution caused by the Cheminova factory in Lemvig and by the illegal mining of the Amazon rainforests in Venezuela. By transforming the theater into a courtroom, The Forests’ Trial creates a space for both human and more-than-human voices to assemble, a kind of “Parliament of all Beings” and of all Things, to direct our collective action to safeguarding our planet’s conditions of habitability.

The Forests’ Trial is the second part of a four year project dedicated to defend and protect the worlds’ forests and advocating for the Rights of Nature. The Forests’ Trial explores a radical concept — Nature as a legal subject with constitutionally-protected rights. In this immersive theatrical tribunal, participants engage in a creative process of political self-representation, taking action where our local and global political systems appear to have stopped, or at least to be extremely slow in doing so. The power of this fictional courtroom is to test, develop, and practice new strategies, and to be prepared in the remote case that our opinions begin to matter, and our creative ideas do become solutions. Dance, text, film, song, and a sound installation (Nature’s Symphony) are media used to create this fictional courtroom. The 35 minute film is narrated and sung live by the 4 performers and sometimes by the audience, as Nature’s Representatives. The film implicates those responsible for the environmental disasters in the two case studies presented. Audience members will receive a book with a libretto that follows the performance’s progression and a guide to continue the trial at home, extending the courtroom into their own lives and communities.

Created, written and directed by Sara Gebran
Concept, research & libretto-book by Sara Gebran
Performance: in collaboration with Marie-Louise Stentebjerg.
Singing Composition: Anne Eisensee
Lyrics: Sara Gebran
Performers: Marie-Louise Stentebjerg, Sara Gebran, Anne Eisensee, and Snorre Elvin.
Stage design: Tor Lindstrand and Sara Gebran
Sound installation with Nature’s Symphony: George Koutsouris
Film editor: Toshie Takeuchi and Sara Gebran
Light, video- and sound design: Emil Vodder
Set design Manager : Niclas Heydorn
Project Coordinator: Kim Wrang Henriksen
Research image on the Danish case study: Sara Gebran & Peter Boel.
Video of Høfde 42, Cheminova and Thyborøn: Peter Boel & Bjarne Hansen
Research fotos on Venezuelan case study: Sara Gebran
Photos of mines in Venezuela: Yris Paul Infante and Mercedes Castro Lanz
PR photo: Peter Boel
Book’s author, concept, and design: Sara Gebran
with contributions by:
Yaku Perez (international Judge of the Rights of Nature, Defender of Water, Kichwa
Kanari/Ecuador), Alessandro Pelizzon (environmental lawyer and environmental
researchers affiliated with The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature), Catherine Haas
and Caitlyn Sutherlin (Australia & USA), and Marie-Louise Stentebjerg (choreographer,
DK)
Spanish translator: Javier Orozco, with support by Sara Gebran
Editor: Izabella Borzecka,
English text revision: Michael Langan
Graphic Design: Susanne Cleworth
Book publisher: PAM