The Lewisham Diaries 2: Sun & Sea – The Albany

A review of Sun & Sea, an opera about Climate Change which unfolds over several hours as the audience at the Albany look on. Strangely mesmerising, this is an atmospheric rather than didactic response to the Climate Emergency.

Sun & Sea

Sun & Sea, by all-female creative team Lina Lapelyte (visual artist and composer)̇, Vaiva Grainytė (writer and poet) and Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė (director), has already had a relatively long life. First staged in Vilnius’s National Gallery of Arts in 2017, it won the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale as Lithuania’s national entry. It has toured to places as disparate as Berlin and Arkansas, and has now landed in Deptford. Here, at the Albany, it does double duty as part of the London International Festival of Theatre and Lewisham Borough of Culture 2022 offering.

But what is it? Well the concept sounds very unusual. And it is. The theatre space becomes an artificial beach, filled with real sand and bright artificial light. A mixture of performers and volunteers act out the sort of lazy, languid day that beaches encourage. Individually or in chorus, we hear the thoughts in their heads in the form of songs. They fret and worry, or ponder, out loud. We hear their preoccupations with status, relationships, their griefs and their joys. The work cycles a number of times over several hours: audiences watch from an upper level, circling to find different vantage points and staying approximately an hour.

What comes through more and more strongly as you listen to Sun & Sea is that this is an artwork about the Climate Emergency. Fleeting thoughts abound of bleached coral, of unseasonable weather. Is it a metaphor for the passive, uneventful way that we are stumbling into a catastrophe? It’s certainly very effective: getting under your skin in a way that is hard to achieve with more didactic approaches.

The Sun & Sea Experience

Watching Sun & Sea is very disarming. Unlike most opera performances, you inevitably come in halfway through. You have the option of buying or downloading the libretto, or can just watch and take it in (Sun & Sea has been performed in English since its Venice outing). The performers and volunteers read, sunbathe, snack, build sandcastles, interact. There are children and dogs (a call for volunteers encouraged the former). Actually a dog joining in with the singing was a particular crowd pleaser while I was there.

It very quickly becomes mesmerising. Each time the singing is taken up by a new performer, it takes a moment to spot who it is. You get engrossed in children’s games. In badminton volleys or attempts at juggling. It’s far more relaxed than the typical opera experience, and thus encourages you to immerse yourself in this lazy summer world.

From viewing articles on the earlier performances, I have spotted several of the performers who have remained part of the company throughout. I would be interested to hear from someone who’s seen it more than once, to understand how much the setting influences the work (or not). The Albany, where the performance is in the round with good sight lines and plenty of space, seems like the perfect spot for it. But equally it would have been interesting to see it in an abandoned Berlin swimming pool.

Final Thoughts

So as a performance and a take on the operatic format, I found Sun & Sea fascinating. It is innovative, welcoming, and truly novel. As a response to the Climate Emergency I was a fraction less certain. It is certainly powerful in this regard, so I think this uncertainty depends on what the creative team hope to achieve. I don’t think this is a call to action. In fact, I found the passive, sleepwalking quality of the characters’ climate worries more anxiety-inducing than anything. Because that individual viewpoint rather than collective action is half the actual problem with our current (lack of) Climate Emergency response.

But not everything has to be, or wants to be, a call to action. Sun & Sea is a clever insight into the human psyche, and a fine work of art. That is surely enough of an achievement on its own.

Lastly, a quick word on Lewisham’s year as Borough of Culture. I haven’t been able to see as much as I had hoped in the months since I saw A Block of Flats, also at the Albany. This is a combination of waiting for the events that suit me best, missing out on tickets for some, and being unavailable for others. But there’s more coming up that I hope to see, so watch this space!

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Sun & Sea on until 9 July 2022