My play is loosely based on John Milton's treatment of the Eve and Adam story in his epic poem
Paradise Lost
written in the 17th century. In my adaptation, Eve, who was originally made responsible for the fall of mankind, is a modern woman who wants to show her audience her life by making vlogs. In her vlogs, we see two different worlds. On the one hand, we get to see the paradise Adam and Eve used to live in and which I perceive as a utopia. On the other hand, after the Original Sin we see Eve living in a dystopian world – or maybe our current world? We see how she adapts to it and copes with the problems she is confronted with.
What were my reasons for choosing this story? First of all, I am quite interested in
Paradise Lost
and wanted to work with the story of Eve and Adam. I first became interested in the story of
Paradise Lost
a few years ago, after I watched a music video based on Milton's poem. I also thought that the story lends itself quite well for a comparison with our current world and what the world could have been like if we had changed something in the past (the TV show
South Park comes to mind, whose producers were still making fun of climate change only a few decades ago).
While the biblical source centers on Adam, my play focuses entirely on Eve. While Eve in the biblical story only has the status of a copy of a copy (being created from Adam's rib and not in God's likeness, like Adam), I wanted to portray an Eve who is equal to Adam, actually takes more action than him and pulls him along on her way. Eve should be portrayed as a modern woman, who may have her faults, but who also never gives up and works for what she thinks is right.
Apart from our current problem with climate change, I also wanted to point out some other things that are not perfect in our modern world. One of them are the over-capitalistic tendencies in our world and of certain companies. Another thing I wanted to address is the role of influencers in our modern society. While Eve is quite a cautious influencer in most aspects, nowadays there are many influencers who manipulate their audience or portray a very one-sided view of the world, and in doing so often have a bad influence on their mostly very young audience.
How did I become interested in climate change, you may ask? Not, as some of you may assume, because of the Fridays for Future movement, since I mostly missed out on that one, living in Japan at the time where there weren't many demonstrations. Instead of demonstrating on the streets in the town I lived in, young children were taught about the dangers of climate change and what we can do to prevent it from getting worse.
The time I became more active in the climate change movement was during my social gap year in Kazakhstan with an organization that cares about the current climate change. The most alarming thing during my gap year was for me to see the amount of snow in Kazakhstan, piling up more than one-meter high. When comparing the amount of snow in Kazakhstan with the amount of snow in Germany (where we are happy to have a few centimetres of snow every other year), I remember when as a child some 15 years ago I was able to build an igloo out of the snow in my grandparents' garden. It makes me quite sad to think that I and my future children may never have that experience again.
When I came to this realization, I started to reduce my environmental footprint in my private life in Kazakhstan and also when I came back to Germany. Thankfully, I was also able to implement some climate friendly measures in my working life, and I have also tried to change a few habits and things in my work with children. In doing so, I hope I can make at least a little impact.
Source Text
Please click on the button below to access the early modern companion text