EIF: Nigamon/Tunai @ The Studio

As soon as you enter The Studio at Potterrow, you are transported to a miraculous, healing space filled with young trees, smudging smoke, moss and ponds, accompanied by nature-inspired soundscapes designed by the phenomenal Colombian artist Leonel Vásquez. Blending contemporary instrumentation with traditional techniques, he creates musical instruments using local materials with spiritual significance, such as copper – a mineral heavily extracted by Canadian companies in Colombia – and stones, which are referred to as 'grandmothers.'

Co-director and co-creator Waira Nina, an Inga artist from the Colombian Amazon, brings an immensely caring presence, holding the space in a way I have never seen before onstage. The profound lack of representation of Indigenous peoples in UK theatre makes her performance all the more poignant. We look at her, and she looks back. Together with co-creator Émilie Monnet, an Anishinaabe Algonquin artist from the Quebec province, she captures the purifying lushness of a uniquely rich territory endangered by unscrupulous Canadian mining companies.

This is not your typical exoticising performance using the Amazon as a backdrop for a North American or European experience. Nigamon/Tunai, meaning ‘song’ in the artists’ respective languages, features Indigenous protagonists who live and breathe the land, relying on endemic medicinal plants and water to survive. Today, industrial extractivism, even in the name of clean energy, has not only deepened poverty and led to water contamination and depletion but is also leading to distressing human rights violations.

The performance itself doesn’t spell this out explicitly. We receive this information through a ‘show, don't tell’ approach. Nina and Monnet vocalise birdsong inspired by six different species from their respective regions. These wonderfully comforting sounds are suddenly and violently shattered by the harsh, grating noise of industrial cranes – an unsettling intrusion that destroys the natural harmony. At this point, a sense of loss is conveyed through Chantal Labonté’s evocative lighting design. During the Q&A, the artists explained that the birds have either migrated or disappeared due to deforestation.

The love, care and time invested in creating Nigamon/Tunai – twelve years, to be exact – are palpable and represent a significant departure from the navel-gazing hysteria that can sometimes overshadow the Edinburgh Festival's connection to global realities. The performance underscores the urgency of recognising that the Amazon is a territory to which the entire planet has a responsibility.

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Nigamon/Tunai, The Studio, part of Edinburgh International Festival, run ended