Edinburgh blog: Janie Dee on her Beautiful World Cabaret

My children running through the streets of London shouting “Save our planet”, Greta Thunberg’s books, and touring around Asia speaking the words of Titania in Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, were just some of the reasons behind my decision to address the climate crisis in my new show.

In 2019 I co-founded the London Climate Change Festival, informing, inspiring and bringing hope through theatre, television and cabaret. Now we’re coming to Edinburgh with our Beautiful World Cabaret.

It’s a show about living more harmoniously with nature. Together with my musical director Ed Zanders on keys, musicians Sarah Harrison and Igor Outki, and performers Sophia Priolo and Josephina Ortiz-Lewis, celebrating being alive and the generosity of our planet Earth with the words of my old friends Shakespeare and Sondheim will be a joy and an honour.

Cabaret should always be dangerous and spontaneous, so I’ll be chatting to audiences to see what they come up with, as well as introducing fabulous guests, from farmers and scientists to ex-footballers and musicians, who are each making a difference to our planet. And afterwards, at The Heart of Newhaven venue – just a tram ride from the city centre – longer, one-hour discussions with those guests will continue.

Human beings are destroying nature in an ignorant and self-destructive frenzy, dumping plastic rubbish in the oceans and in landfill. In the UK alone, we produce 222.2 billion tons of waste each year.

By doing these shows I realised I had to start with myself, so I try to live a more sustainable, planet-caring, life-loving existence. I shop at plastic-free greengrocers, I garden, and I don’t fly. I make mistakes. But guilt doesn’t help. Just trying and never giving up is how it’s working. And each person can make a difference.

The LCCF wants to celebrate the advances, and interrogate the failures. It wants to guide and restore. And it wants your ideas, questions and support.

We now have an office in west London, where we want to create a forum for ideas, discussion and action. Living harmoniously with nature is a wonderful thought but If you’re finding it difficult to know what to do, come and have a chat. Or see the show! More than ever before, we need to work together in harmony.

Janie Dee’s Beautiful World Cabaret is at the Pleasance Dome, Bristo Square, from 31 July to 26 August (not 7, 13, 20 August)

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