HENRY V: Colonialism and the Climate Crisis

The Donmar Warehouse Podcast

HENRY V: Colonialism and the Climate Crisis Max Webster (director of Henry V) talks with Professor Farah Karim-Cooper and Indra Adnan about the relationship between colonialism and the climate crisis. They discuss the influence of Shakespeare on the construction of English identity, and how this was later deployed to justify Britain’s colonial project. They also reflect on human development, ‘growing up’, and recognising our past mistakes. Recorded during the run of Henry V on 2 March 2022. Max Webster is an award-winning theatre director, specialising in new work, opera and live music events. Max has directed major productions in London at The Old Vic, The Globe Theatre and English National Opera, as well as across Europe, North America and Asia. He is currently an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse. Website: https://maxwebsterdirector.co.uk/ Farah Karim-Cooper is Co-Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe and Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King's College London. She curates the Shakespeare and Race Festival and Anti-racist Shakespeare Webinars at the Globe and is the author of several publications on Shakespeare, theatre and race. Her forthcoming book is called The Great White Bard: How to Talk about Shakespeare and Race with One World and Viking Books (2023). Website: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/dr-farah-karim-cooper/ Indra Adnan is Founder and Co-initator of The Alternative Global, a socio-political platform serving systemic transformation. AltGlobal publishes a Daily Alternative news blog, develops cosmolocal agency networks (CANs) and connects planetary regeneration projects. Indra is concurrently a socio-psychotherapist, writer and consultant on soft power. Clients have included the Danish and Brazilian governments, World Economic Forum and NATO. Her book The Politics of Waking Up: Power and Possibility in the Fractal Age was a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year in 2021. Website: https://indraadnan.global/ Twitter: @indraadnan Produced by Josh Parr, Dadiow Lin and Heather Pasfield for the Donmar Warehouse Audio Recording: Ed Borgnis, Simon Hendry, Max Hunter Audio Edit and Mix: Ed Borgnis - Mentioned resources: - The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race, ed. Ayanna Thompson - Keep an eye out for The Great White Bard: Shakespeare, Race and the Future of His Legacy, by Farah Karim-Cooper - out from One World, May 2023 - Shakespeare's Globe podcasts: on Shakespeare and Race - Anti-racist Shakespeare Webinar Series, sponsored by Cambridge University Press, Shakespeare's Globe Additional Links The Alternative Global: www.thealternative.org.uk The Human Givens Institute: https://www.hgi.org.uk The work of Minna Salami: https://msafropolitan.com/ - Further reading (Suggested by Zoë Svendsen) Naomi Klein, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (2019) Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21 st -century Economist (2017) Kate Fletcher, Earth Logic (2019) Website: https://earthlogic.info/ Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2017) Amitav Ghosh, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (2021) Cara Daggett, ‘Petromasculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire’ in Millenium: Journal of International Studies (2018) Website: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305829818775817 Indra Adnan, The Politics of Waking Up: Power and Possibility in the Fractal Age (2021) George Monbiot, Out of the Wreckage: a New Politics for an Age of Crisis (2017) Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011)