In its tribute to controversial teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, “Save the World”, a new musical staged in Sweden, has gone so far as to call adults who ignore the climate change “brainless”.
In the musical staged by the Perstorp cultural school, eight- and nine-year-olds sing and rap about playing bongo drums on the “climate deniers'” empty skulls.
According to Gunilla Rönnberg, the head of the Perstorp cultural school, the idea behind the musical was to offer some protection to the16-year-old climate movement's figurehead, who, she argued, has to endure many hateful comments for her activism.
“I got so tired when I saw that there were adults who made scornful comments about Greta so I sat down and wrote this,” Gunilla Rönnberg explained to national broadcaster SVT.
The child artists who take part in the performance depict animals, such as Moose, Deer, Hare, Squirrel or Polar Bear, who unite in the protest against their habitats being destroyed by melting ice and forest fires. For the actors, Greta Thunberg is an idol, SVT reported.
In a Facebook heads-up about the performance, Rönnberg posted a quote from the musical bashing “stupid adults”: “They must have cork in their heads and tiny, tiny brains.”
According to the school, the performance will soon be made available on YouTube, fitted with both Swedish and English subtitles in order to spread the word.
“My hope is that music teachers and cultural schools all over the world can use this when working with climate issues. And hopefully quiet the adults who don't know any better,” Gunilla Rönnberg told SVT.
The musical has already sparked mixed reactions. While eco-activists hailed it as a brave step in the battle for a better environment, others have blasted it as propaganda. News outlet Samhällsnytt called the performance the “indoctrination of small children”.
Kommun indoktrinerar småbarn att hata ”korkade vuxna” som kritiserar Greta https://t.co/DvrScg4LWa #svpol
— Samhällsnytt (@samhallsnytt) 20 ноября 2019 г.
“Hope you get fired who force your propaganda upon young children. Damn it”, an indignant person wrote on Rönnberg's Facebook page.
“Another one trying to become famous and make money on children, the some people have no scruples”, another one retorted.
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist and media darling, is currently on board the 15-metre catamaran La Vagabonde, sailing from Virginia to Portugal in order to arrive at the climate summit in Spain in good time. Earlier this year, Thunberg, who avoids planes due to their carbon footprint, she famously took a sabbatical from school and hitched a ride in an “emissions-free” racing boat to the Americas to gain more traction for her movement Fridays for Future, in which hundreds of thousands of pupils have walked away from school to demand more strenuous action to combat theorised anthropogenic climate change from their governments.
