Esplanade - Mercury

SYNOPSIS

In the 1950's, the coastal waters around Minamata, Japan, were poisoned with mercury due to industrial run off from a local factory. Over 3,000 people who ate seafood from the town's coastal waters were sickened with mercury poising and suffered permanent harm. Yet, because of cultural constraints, "Minamata", as it is known, is not discussed within Japan. The victims of this poisoning live as shut-ins, fearful of embarrassment and exposure to the general public.

Based on the true story of what happened at Minamata, Mercury is a story of how villagers’ lives of a small simple quiet village get better when a big cooperation came and built a big factory there. This move gave the villagers a new hope for a career change from the dangerous fishing life. Electricity and tap water became available for all and their standard of living improved. However, such conveniences and improvement came at a high price that they had not bargained for. Without they knowledge, the factory had secretly poured their waste products – Mercury into their waters.

After some time, strange things started to happen in the village. Starting from the animals, then the children and eventually the adults. They started to develop a special disease. When they discovered that the big cooperation was behind the happenings, they demanded amendments. The villagers brought the big cooperation to court and eventually won the case. However, by then, what had been done was beyond repaired.

This production looks at four families that had undergone the whole process and examined what they had gained and lost from the incident. From the point view of the woman of the house, the show aims to show the development and then the result of the catastrophe. The aim is to highlight the price we all have to pay for progress and when we don’t take care of our environment. The main message is that we just have one Earth and everyone has a part to play to maintain the balance of nature. Time is ticking and the longer we procrastinate, the closer we get to our own destruction.

The audience will be laughing and crying as we join the ride and watch how the women deal with the changes. The passage of time will be indicated by the change of the media announcing news to the villagers from radio to black and white television and then color television. The back drop will be made of newspaper to suggest about the events happened around the world that is harming our Mother Earth. The building of the factory will be constructed out by piling garbage bags that signifies the waste products produced by the factory. At the end, the audience will leave the theatre with a heavy heart that all is to be blamed for what happened at Minamata – the villagers, the greedy CEOs and the city people to the people who turned away from the event. Then again, we also see a light at the end of the tunnel that it is still not too late if we act now. To save our Mother Earth as it is the only one that we got.

About Paper Monkey
One of our main objectives is to introduce performing arts through professional, fully staged productions that appeal to young people, parents and educators while teaching morals and values.

Paper Monkey is committed to providing more than just theatre. We strive to include puppetry, dance, multimedia, martial arts and a variety of music and songs into our repertoire to help young people understand all aspects of theatre. Through the exposure to quality theatre arts, they learn to appreciate live performances and incorporate the lessons they learn into their everyday lives.

Paper Monkey not only stages productions for the public but also offers performances to primary and secondary schools. These performances are endorsed by the National Arts Council’s (NAC) Arts Education Programme unit (AEP) and qualify for a 60% subsidy from the Tote Board grant.

ADVISORY

Earth Hour at Esplanade on 27 March 2010

In line with our efforts to contribute to a greener environment, Esplanade will be participating in the Earth Hour project spearheaded by WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature). Pledging our support for Earth Hour 2010, Esplanade will dim and turn off the lights around the centre from 8.30pm â 9.30pm on Saturday, 27 March 2010. All operations in the centre will continue as normal.

Should you require assistance during the Earth Hour, please do not hesitate to approach our staff. More information on Earth Hour 2010 can be found at www.earthhour.org

Thank you and we look forward to your support towards a greener environment!

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