Unique and thought-provoking, but this voyeuristic promenade piece often falls short of the scope it aims for.
The year is 2050. The rising sea is washing over the whole of Liverpool and knocking at the door, and
you’re partying with a group of fish. This is Fish in a Kettle, Lab Rats Collective’s latest fully
immersive performance, showing at Fabric Studios in the wake of this sweltering spring heatwave. In
a sort of Cabaret meets Finding Nemo, the audience is invited to walk through various rooms of a
house party in swing, guided by a gilled Oracle (Ellena Begley), and with three party guests
representing coral (Anita Brokmeier), the ocean herself (Kate Taylor Hunter), and the tides (Felipe Jara).
The experience is voyeuristic and at times uncomfortable. The audience is asked not to speak or
touch, while performers often approach and stare into you, or pose questions. The aim? To make the
audience confront climate issues like sea temperature rise, coral bleaching, extreme and unpredictable
weather etc., by giving these problems human faces and struggles with grief, infertility, and
loneliness. The audience eavesdrops on personal conversations over a glass of alcohol, and watches
nervously for the results of a drunken bathroom pregnancy test. In one room, posters stuck to the
walls tell the audience about prominent women in computing who programmed the tidal predictions
we use today, or those who warned about the impact of burning fossil fuels long before this
conversation became so mainstream. Nearby mirrors encourage self-reflection. This is easy to miss,
however, as none of the performances take place in this room, and this hint at a feminist narrative is
unfortunately not brought into the rest of the piece in a meaningful way.
Developed by performers Kate Taylor Hunter and Anita Brokmeier alongside Dr Marta Payo Payo of the
National Oceanography Centre, Fish in a Kettle promised a fully immersive experience with no
‘correct’ path to follow, where the audience can go with the flow and stick to one performer or room,
or move around. In practice, this isn’t quite what happens. There is a clear beginning to end narrative
as the performance moves through three main sections, each an alternate outcome to the path of
climate change humanity is barrelling down, both bleak and hopeful. There are only really two
occasions where the audience has a choice which part of the story to follow, as the four performers
gather together often for interpretative dances, deaths and rebirths.
Brokmeier’s performance as Coral is very emotive and captivating. For the rest, while well performed
and delivered, it was harder to be pulled into the narrative. A lot of the messaging is quite on the nose
and falls short of the huge scope of climate problems and threats faced by the ocean, especially for an
audience predisposed to be aware of and agree with the intended message. A smattering of reusable
plastic bags looking very deliberately arranged on the kitchen floor hardly do the job of capturing the
vast scale of pollution and plastic waste clogging our seas.
Nevertheless, Fish in a Kettle is a unique and thought-provoking piece developed locally, merging art
and science. The Oracle, a stand-in for scientists whose predictions and warnings have gone ignored,
is unable to change the outcome, but you – the audience – still have that power.
Fish in a Kettle runs at Fabric Studios, Liverpool until the 30th May. Tickets here.