Artist Crosses 600km of Arctic on Foot for Climate Play

When Tom Bailey left the Norwegian-Russian border in March with a tent and survival gear, he didn't have a finished show to perform. That was exactly the plan.

The Bristol-based theatre maker spent two months traveling more than 600 kilometers across the Arctic, crossing remote forests, frozen lakes, and coastal mountains between Norway, Finland, and Sweden. His journey ended May 27 at a theatre festival in Norway's Lofoten Islands.

Bailey wanted to rethink how artists talk about climate change. Instead of flying somewhere to perform about nature, he decided to move through the landscape itself, meeting Sami communities, local residents, and researchers along the way.

"Traditionally in theatre touring, we've flown somewhere or driven somewhere and just travelled through places without much engagement with the landscape," Bailey says. "This is a way of fully acknowledging and investigating the land I'm trying to talk about."

The journey pushed him to his limits. An unusually warm Arctic spring turned the snow soft and slushy, making travel far harder than expected, so he traveled at night when temperatures dropped and the snow refroze.

Setting up and breaking down camp took four to five hours each day. Melting snow for drinking water alone consumed an hour per session.

The Ripple Effect

Bailey's trek goes beyond creating theatre. He's exploring big questions about who gets a voice in Arctic decisions as the region warms and resources become available.

He's particularly interested in the rights of nature movement. "Is it about time that we included nature legally as a decision maker, as a rights holder in any decisions we make about the Arctic?" he wonders. "What would it look like if the sea, or reindeer, or lichen could have representation?"

Local reactions have been positive. People appreciate that he's taking time to really listen rather than rushing through.

The journey is research for a full performance piece Bailey plans to premiere in 2027 with designer Natasha Soonchild. He gave his first public presentation of material at the Stamsund International Theatre Festival in May.

Bailey doesn't expect every artist to follow his model, but he thinks conversations about green touring miss the point when they focus only on carbon calculations. "Sometimes it feels like we're stuck in this mindset of business as usual, but we'll just travel by train instead," he says.

His bigger question is whether theatre can move from making work about nature to making work with it. Bailey's journey proves that sometimes the slowest path leads to the deepest understanding.