Selling Ice to the Remains of the Eskimos (2010)
WARNING: contains ice
Welcome – to the future. Or the recent past. Climate change is occurring at alarming, unprecedented rates. Actually, everything is fine, not sure what you’re talking about. Sea levels have risen seventy-five metres, covering all but the tip of the Sydney Opera House. No they haven’t. The internet is a thing of the past; people can only communicate by Chinese Whispers … these are those whispers. No, they’re not.
Meet depressed Inuits, evil scientists, scheming real estate dolphins, bloodthirsty cartoon bears, lonely pig-faced dinosaurs and one confused but very enthusiastic performer. In 43 hot, wet and crowded minutes, Tom Doig will fight his way through the methane-stinking quagmire of climate change science, politics and psychology, wrestling with skeptics, statistics and his own bad habits. Did I mention the spandex bodysuit?
Selling Ice to the Remains of the Eskimos is part theatre show, part brainstorm-in-a-teacup, and part intimate storytelling session. It is a number of incomplete answers to the same curly question: How can we imagine the unimaginable?
To keep his carbon footprint down, Tom caught the train from Melbourne to Wagga Wagga, then cycled 250 kilometres to Canberra to perform Selling Ice to the Remains of the Eskimos at the You Are Here Festival in March 2011. It rained. The latex dolphin suit on the back of his bike swelled up like a giant sponge, making bike riding stupidly difficult.
Interview with BMA Magazine Canberra
A fellow called Duncan Felton wrote on his blog: "Tom Doig’s Selling Ice to the Remains of the Eskimos. Full on. Still processing it all, a month later." That was months ago.
Selling Ice to the Remains of the Eskimos was made with the support of the Australia Council's Jump Mentoring program. Mentoring by David Woods (Ridiculusmus).