Cognitive Ecology in Chantal Bilodeau’s Climate Change Theatre

This article explores Chantal Bilodeau’s ongoing Arctic Cycle Project (specifically the plays Forward and No More Harveys ) as an instance of climate change theatre that centers and investigates the concept of cognitive ecology, positing human cognition as the product of interactions with the surrounding environment manifested in its physical, social, and cultural dimensions. Situated at the intersection of the mental and the environmental, distributed cognition as an ecological approach can be used to investigate the profound influence of climate change on the evolution and transformation of characters’ thought processes. Bilodeau’s dramaturgy of cognitive ecology stresses the significance of integrating climate change issues into theatre, promoting testimonial storytelling and empathic witness in the face of an ecological catastrophe.