Because of the mud

A story of family and queer identity as told by a grove of four aspens (all named Roberta) and two stones. This intergenerational cast of actors, dancers and musicians embrace speculative anthropomorphism to imagine how the climate breakdown is lived by our plant and mineral neighbours. Four aspens in a grove are all named Roberta. The Robertas are in fact one organism, united at the roots. But Roberta is also four individuals, each with their own needs and desires. Roberta is ancient, yet the youngest Roberta has never known life before the climate shifted. Rooted in place, Roberta is the environment, now drowning in rain. You can’t escape from a place when you are the place. Roberta navigates this crisis and ensuing identity rifts as a matter of self and survival, alongside two rocky companions (one granite and the other quartzite). In a first staging of this text by queer New York playwright Corinne Donly, choreographer Nate Yaffe has gathered a stellar, intergenerational cast of musicians, dancers, and actors. Six human performers attempt to embody plants and minerals, embracing the power and humour of speculative anthropomorphism to empathise with the more-than-human community. Because of the Mud invites us into the messy heart of both the queer struggle and the ecological crisis. How can we individuate ourselves within a collective identity? How can we grasp the unknowable lived experience of our neighbours?