Redell Olsen Mixed Media Collage, 2020.
Act I
All are looking for someone or something. Radar tracks weather and ignores insects until a small group of scientists begins to interpret the data differently. Desire is distributed among those in profit the rest hunker down until violence erupts. Immediate effects of pesticides on insect food eaten by corn buntings enter without singing. The effects of eating this insect food on chick mass and nest survival are found centre stage. The lighting is important here. Linkages proliferate beyond diagrams. Acis is seeking Galatea when he should be looking for Rachel Carson, Naomi Klein, Anna Tsing and Elizabeth Kolbert. Someone holds up a sign but it is apparently difficult to change direction without a loss to big business which nobody likes the sound of. Brass section. The grey partridge demonstrates the effects of pesticides for many. Someone does a little dance but this is hard to follow in terms of the context exactly. It might be an advert for Shell or it could be a protest against their involvement in the production but it is hard to tell. The audience revels in the indeterminacy which is live-streamed to town squares. There is no need to persuade the birds to cease their cheerful song so as not to awaken desire because so many birds no longer sing anyway. She could sing about this. An apparently more than close friend tries to persuade one of them to abandon his search and join his fellows in their celebrations but the chicks are dead and those in charge do not seem to have noticed. Decreased invertebrate availability through insecticide and herbicide use have reduced their survival, sings the chorus. But Acis now sees Galatea and praises her beauty in spite of industrial pollution. Insecticide applications on yellowhammer chick condition and brood survival demonstrate effects during the breeding season. Some are re-united and declare their love for each other despite deformation.
