WATCH: Li Jianhua visits this very special theater fighting for the planet

Surrounded by the glass and steel towers of London's financial district Canary Wharf, a small low-rise construction called the Greenhouse Theatre has sprung up. 

Its mission is to serve as a gentle reminder that each action counts when it comes to the battle with climate change.

Billed as Britain's first zero-waste theater, the Greenhouse has been staging plays in three different locations across the capital over the summer, as longer days give the opportunity to cut down on electricity.

The entire theater is built from reused materials – timber framing and wood pallet cladding – which can be reconstructed in a variety of locations.

The founder of the theater said that its role is to go beyond the facts and figures of climate science by engaging audiences with stories that the they can relate to.

"I believe passionately that climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing us as a species, but a lot of the kind of communication is based on facts and figures," says Greenhouse Theatre CEO Oli Savage.

"I really felt that there was a space for storytelling and using the power of story to help people connect with nature," he adds, saying the idea is "to make sure that they know that every action they make can have an impact.” 

Small cast, big stories

The Greenhouse Theatre had its first-ever outing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019, where eight shows were presented, including Swallows, The Earth Untold and Symbiosis. 

The theater moved to London in 2021 and has since presented several performances, including As You Like It and 12.

Stories are told with a small cast and just a few props – each time to about 15 audience members in a venue designed to host up to 50 people.

The theater is currently running To the Ocean – a modern retelling of the Selkie myth, in which people can transform from human beings into seals.

"It's about not necessarily ramming climate change or sustainable choices down your throat. It's about just inviting you to see a different way of how we actually interact with the world," says Laura Kent, one of the actresses in the show.

"That's why actually it's so lovely being here because we're in Canary Wharf right now, in the middle of a skyscraper city, so industrial and we've just got this lovely little venue popped up in this green space of London," says another actress, Alice Robinson.

"It just feels really special to be an oasis." 

Savage said his target audiences are those aged between 16 and 35, who tend to be very worried about the environment, but are pessimistic about what they can do.

"As a young person, you want people to care about it more than they actually do," says audience member Megan Cairney.

"There are a lot of people who really do care about the climate crisis, but they need to have their voices heard. This is a way to raise awareness and get more people talking about it," she adds.

The Greenhouse CEO, however, admitts the current economic climate was putting a strain on planning future projects. 

"Mostly at the moment we're funding ourselves through ticket sales and through ball sales," says Savage.

"We hope that we'll be able to just keep going on through and people will start to hear more about us and will come to our shows."

Find out more about the Greenhouse Theatre

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