The Forever Wave is an audio production from Estrella Suerte Productions. Available on-demand via C Arts digital throughout Edinburgh Fringe, this is a futuristic tale inspired by Under Milk Wood.
“If you survive the apocalypse, don’t you get to help build what comes after? The Forever Wave is an audio experience set in drowned San Francisco, circa 2070, inspired by Dylan Thomas’ iconic play for voices, Under Milk Wood. Drawing on geography, climate science and local Bay Area history, it offers a comprehensive look at a what-if future should climate change and economic inequality continue to fail to be addressed. An array of almost 70 voices – survivors and dead alike – are brought to vivid life by a multicultural, multigenerational, and multilingual cast of 12.”
Where: portal – on demand at C ARTS | C venues | C digital
When: until 31 Aug
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-forever-wave
What can you tell us about your show? What is it about and where did the idea come from?
This show is the culmination of many of my interests coming together. The inspiration for it came from the Dylan Thomas play, Under Milk Wood, which is a play I’ve always wanted to produce, but couldn’t quite visualize how to make it work with a limited budget. I find its vision to be quite expansive and poetic, but I could also see how to a modern audience it might seem quaint or dated. So that was one thread.
Another was that I wanted to explore climate change and catastrophe through a lens of community resilience. So many post-apocalyptic works are bleak and unsympathetic; what would it be like to imagine a microcosm of cooperation, shared abundance, and human-powered, egalitarian solutions to surviving a 60-meter sea level rise?
Lastly, I wanted to create work that was accessible, both for performers and audiences. This play debuted in 2023, which meant I worked on it for most of 2022. It was a weird time for theatre-making, because on the one hand, people really REALLY wanted to attend and create in-person performances, but on the other hand, shows kept having to shut down halfway through their runs because of COVID outbreaks. I wanted to explore what it would be like to create, rehearse, perform, and distribute a work fully remotely while still retaining the important essence of theatricality—and a radio play is the medium that best fits that parameter. Especially since my touchstone—Under Milk Wood—was also originally created for radio. For Fringe festivals, I tour the original radio play recording, but with video subtitles, so that it can be accessed remotely/on-demand by folks who want to either listen to it as a radio play, or read the subtitles on their screen. It’s about as accessible a production as you can get, and I’m pretty proud of that.
How would you sell it to audiences in one paragraph?
Well, the website blurb is this: Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, The Forever Wave reconceptualizes Thomas’ play for a climate-ravaged near-future. Set in a drowned Bay Area, circa 2070, The Forever Wave imagines the survivors of this waterlogged world as occupying the tops of hills, individual islands jutting up from a climate-change-induced tide that rolled in one day and never rolled out. What communities will emerge in a future where our systems have collapsed and our “normal” is a historical relic? What can the hilltop-dwellers of the future teach us about ourselves in the now? And what are the things we can start building in order to avoid their fate?
But the simpler version is something like this: Loosely inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, The Forever Wave imagines a post-climate-pocalypse world in which the survivors must work together to create a new society with old tools. Set in the San Francisco of the future, this radio play for the now is an optimistic take on community-building and resilience after a 60-meter sea level rise. With a multi-generational, multi-lingual cast of 12 who narrate through poetry, prose, and song. Plus, there’s a free map so you can follow the characters around their new terrain (available as a download on my website): https://estrellasuerteproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/theforeverwavedownload8.5.pdf
Do you enjoy participating in the Fringe? And do you have any moments you particularly remember?
I’ve been involved with Fringe theatre for over 20 years, and I’ve loved every single one of those years! I worked at the San Francisco Fringe Festival for 20 years, have toured the Canadian Fringe circuit multiple times as an SM/lighting designer/technician, did the same at Edinburgh for one glorious year, reviewed shows at the New York Fringe, and have toured The Forever Wave around the world. That’s a lot of moments. For me, Fringe theatre encapsulates everything I love about theatre—immediacy, accessibility, passion, experimentation, intimacy, unpredictability, and community. I’m very lucky to have encountered it during a formative time, and to still be part of this world.
What are you looking forward to the most in Edinburgh?
It’s only my second Edinburgh Fringe, so I’m just really looking forward to the buzz. I’ll be attending remotely, which will be less immersive, but there are still quite a few shows I’ll be able to see, and I’m looking forward to them.
What’s next for the show?
That’s a great question. I’ve been touring this show for three years now. It might be time to give it its flowers and move to other projects. So, catch this wave while you can!