Implication and Emotional Literacy in That Other Place: Analyzing a Theatre-Embedded Approximation to the Climate Crisis

Abstract

As implicated subjects, human beings, especially the inhabitants of the Global North, (in)directly contribute to various forms of unjust structures that manifest in issues such as the climate crisis. Addressing this implication and actively acting against it requires a paradigmatic attentional shift toward an environment-informed scale, which presents both cognitive and affectual challenges. The emotions tied to our embeddedness in structures of systemic violence, such as environmental destruction and economic exploitation, are ideologically informed and inherently complex and often hinder efforts to acknowledge and oppose this implication. In this vein, the current essay emphasizes the need to develop a more efficient emotional literacy and a sense of differentiated solidarity among individuals for overcoming these obstacles. To illustrate this, the essay engages with the live performance That Other Place, presented by Colectivo Nerval in Teatre el Musical in Valencia, Spain, in September 2024. The analysis serves to demonstrate how contemporary theatre, with its embodied and interactive nature, can serve as a possible platform to construe solidarities and foster an enhanced emotional literacy, so urgently demanded to address the issue of the climate crisis.