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True life tales of climate crisis

Adapted from the award-winning Climate Disaster Project, the Eyes of the Beast spotlights British Columbians who lived through the deadly North American ‘heat dome’ of 2021 — including DTES residents

July 3, 2025

On a warm evening in the Downtown Eastside, peer journalists from The Shift newsroom, Jules Chapman and Mike McNeeley, attended the opening premiere in Vancouver of Eyes of the Beast to witness their own climate disaster stories, along with the testimonies of more than 30 others, come to life on stage at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.  

Props were scattered across the stage, while digital screens hung from the rafters, displaying portraits of climate disaster survivors from across B.C. who lived through the deadly North American “heat dome” of  2021. As their voices filled the space, actors stepped in to bring their stories to life in a powerful piece of journalistic theatre. 

Adapted from the award-winning journalism of the Climate Disaster Project, an international newsroom at the University of Victoria (UVic), the documentary theatre production draws from hundreds of testimonies of people who have experienced the devastating effects of climate change. 

The play is a Neworld Theatre production, made in partnership with the Climate Disaster Project in association with the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts, and supported by Simon Fraser University. 

The Climate Disaster Project was founded by Sean Holman, the Wayne Crookes Professor of Environmental and Climate Journalism at UVic, and is led by faculty from 11 post-secondary institutions across Canada. 

Through the project, journalism and writing students partnered with climate disaster survivors to share their stories publicly and identify the common challenges and solutions that emerge from their experiences. 

What sets this production apart, Holman says, is its commitment to truth — through sharing and amplifying stories about the effects of climate change, which he believes will be the defining human experience of this century.  

“We have a tendency to flatten experiences,” said Holman. “What this play, and the Climate Disaster Project does, is it allows us to truly see one another on the cusp of a new age of disaster.” 

At UVic and the University of British Columbia, writing and journalism students collaborated with Megaphone and several Downtown Eastside storytellers to co-create firsthand accounts of how they were impacted by the devastating heatwave and wildfires that swept across Western North America in 2021. A number of those powerful narratives were later adapted for the stage in Eyes of the Beast. 

For Megaphone storytellers Chapman and McNeeley, the theatre experience was deeply personal. Both had shared their stories through Megaphone’s involvement in the Climate Disaster Project (along with vendors Peter Thompson, Suzanne Kilroy/Huculak, Yvonne Mark and DJ). 

During the premiere of the play in downtown Vancouver, Chapman and McNeeley watched actors perform those same stories on stage — and saw their own lives reflected back with emotion and care. 

Sara van Gaalen portrayed Chapman, while Lachlan Harris-Fiesel took on the role of McNeeley. 

At the end of each performance, audiences were invited to share their own impressions with the Neworld creative team and a designated “policy listener.” Each night, a different policy listener was invited to witness the play and hear audience feedback before offering a personal reflection. Guests included Vancouver Couns. Mike Klassen and Sean Orr; Sarah Henderson, scientific director of Environmental Health Services at the BC Centre for Disease Control; Lytton Mayor Denise O’Connor; and Patti MacAhonic, director of the Fraser Valley Regional District. 

Holman, the Climate Disaster Project’s founding director, said he always had in mind to invite a “policy listener” to see the performances. 

“My background is as an investigative journalist,” he told Megaphone, “so when something goes wrong, you want someone in power to do something about it. Or at least know that this happened, so they can do something for next time.” 

Megaphone’s own “policy listeners” also had feedback: 

Each story spoke of both despair and survival — Julie Chapman 

“It was very cool seeing my story and hearing my words on stage.  

All the stories were moving and emotional — I laughed, I cried, and it made me think more outside of the box. Yes, we have many suffering here in the Downtown Eastside, but there were survivors from across the province who lost everything they owned and cherished. People trapped in their towns, not being able to leave — it must have been terrifying!  

It would have been nice to have had more of a Q&A with Mike Klassen. For example, I would have liked to know [what happened to the] free AC (air conditioner) program with BC Hydro? Residents can’t get enough relief from a fan, and the rooms down here can be staggeringly hot. Also, the criteria has changed to get the ACs. They’ve started asking people who apply to provide a doctor’s note stating why they need an air conditioning unit. Here’s a thought: because they are hot and a fan only blows the hot air around. It doesn’t combat the heat.  

To me, the stories were powerful because each one spoke of both despair and survival. They spoke of communities coming together to help other community members who were more vulnerable, or less mobile. It was a relief to hear that humans haven’t stopped caring for each other in times of devastation. Despite the tragedies and deaths, people still persevered through unimaginable circumstances and found the strength to carry on. That truly resonates with me.” 

The array of experiences people had in B.C. was shocking — Mike McNeeley 

I was amazed how accurate the actors delivered the message I said during my interview. I shared everything from my cat panting to stay alive, to trying to find a cooling station in Vancouver. 

Seeing the array of experiences people had throughout B.C. was somewhat shocking. Everything from floods to the heat dome was covered. There were also great visual and auditory elements in the play. 

I think the Q&A session after the play was engaging. It was also great to have Vancouver city councillor Mike Klassen share his shocking stories that happened to him during the heat dome, too. 

2021 North American heat wave was a deadly record-breaker  

Like Chapman’s and McNeeley’s stories in the Downtown Eastside, the diverse stories in Eyes of the Beast come from everyday people navigating extraordinary environmental circumstances: a couple debate which animals to save on their Abbotsford farm; an actor collapses from heat stroke at the B.C. legislature; an overwhelmed emergency room doctor faces the most traumatic day of his career as he’s confronted with more cardiac arrests than he can possibly treat. 

The 2021 heat wave impacted most of Western North America from late June to mid-July 2021, resulting in the highest temperature ever measured in Canada: 49.6 degrees Celsius. 

In B.C., the heat dome resulted in 619 heat-related deaths — many among vulnerable people such as those without adequate housing and those living alone — and sparked intense wildfires, including the one that destroyed the town of Lytton.  

The production drove home the message that climate disasters don’t just happen to other people in distant places — they affect people from all walks of life, from privileged landowners to unhoused residents. Their experiences may, and do, differ greatly, but the impact is often equally devastating. 

This spring, Eyes of the Beast also made history. In May, it became the first theatre production ever to receive a Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Award, winning Silver in the Environmental and Climate Change category — a groundbreaking moment for both journalism and the performing arts. 

To learn more, visit The Climate Disaster Project’s website at: climatedisasterproject.com to read stories from Jules Chapman, Mike McNeeley and more fantastic Megaphone storytellers. 

Megaphone’s climate stories were published in the June 2022 edition of the magazine. Download a free copy here: https://megaphonemagazine.com/online-store/DIGITAL-Back-Issue-Magazine-June-2022-p477111908   

Jules Chapman and Mike McNeeley are peer journalists with The Shift newsroom. Amy Romer is Megaphone’s Local Journalism Initiative reporter and mentor for The Shift. 

Published in Megaphone magazine on July 4,2024