Kate Taylor Hunter and Anita Brokmeier (Fish in a Kettle)

Lab Rats Collective presents a surreal immersive theatre experience, Fish in a Kettle, set in 2050 inside a house party that won’t stop. It takes place in Liverpool being battered by waves and engulfed by tides, in a gathering where fish, people and everything in between collide. In this devised show, audience members move through the party and choose who to follow, watching a series of shifting predictions as the hosts explore what is probable and what is possible in the future. This strange and voyeuristic experience floats between theatre, scientific research and the voices of Merseyside, while challenging audiences to hold darkness and hope at the same time.

We took the opportunity to speak with creators and performers Kate Taylor Hunter and Anita Brokmeier to tell us more.

Q) Hello - thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions today. Before we begin, please could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Fish in a Kettle?

We're Kate Taylor Hunter and Anita Brokmeier, Co-founders of Lab Rats Collective and co- creators of Fish in a Kettle.

The show is an immersive theatre experience set inside a house party in the year 2050. Audiences are brought there by an oracle called Ringo, who is trying to predict the future. As they move through the space, they encounter different possible futures through three characters who personify different dimensions of the Ocean.

The piece combines performance, movement, scientific research and absurdity to explore what climate change might feel like emotionally and physically. It's strange, playful, a little unsettling, and hopefully quite moving too.

Q) What first sparked the idea for the show and why did you choose a house party as the setting to explore these vital themes?

In an earlier collaboration we made during our training at RADA, we explored the environmental and political dimensions of fashion. That experience sparked a much broader interest in climate-related work and how theatre might engage with these issues differently.

We started reaching out to marine scientists and applying for opportunities connecting artists with ocean research. Eventually we connected with Dr Marta Payo Payo at the National Oceanography Centre and received support from TIDAL ArtS, which allowed the project to develop.

The house party came much later. During rehearsals we became interested in the Ocean as a character rather than a topic. We started imagining it as someone who is charismatic, emotional, exhausted, seductive and occasionally furious. A house party felt like the perfect environment to explore all of those contradictions. Parties can be joyful, awkward, intimate, chaotic and political all at once. They are places where people come together, avoid difficult conversations, fall in love, argue, dance and pretend everything is fine. That felt surprisingly close to the way many of us experience the climate crisis.

Q) What made Liverpool the right city for this story?

Liverpool is a city with a profound relationship to water. The sea is part of its history, identity, economy and culture. It felt like a place where conversations about coastal futures could feel immediate rather than abstract.

We were also fortunate to spend time with people from across Merseyside during the research process, including wild swimmers, ferry workers and young people. Those encounters gave us a much richer understanding of how people relate to the coast today.

At the same time, Liverpool is a city full of humour, resilience and strong community spirit. We didn't want to create a story about climate change that felt detached from real people. Liverpool felt like a place where we could hold both the seriousness of the subject and the warmth, wit and humanity that runs through the show.

Q) Fish in a Kettle has an immersive element with audiences being able to move around in the party and choose who to follow - how will this element shape the storytelling element and what do you hope that audiences will take away from this?

One of the exciting things about immersive theatre is that audiences become more active participants in how the story unfolds. There isn't a single route through the show. Two people standing in the same building may leave having had completely different experiences.

We were interested in creating a piece where people can follow their curiosity. Some audience members might spend the evening with one character, while others move between different spaces and stories.

Hopefully that creates a more personal relationship with the themes of the piece. Rather than telling audiences exactly what to think, we're inviting them to navigate uncertainty, make choices and piece together their own experience. In many ways, that mirrors the way we encounter and understand the climate crisis - as a collection of headlines, lived experience, social media snapshots and science lessons.

Q) Climate conversations can often feel daunting or overwhelming; how have you approached these themes within the performance to make it accessible for audiences?

One thing we talked about a lot during development was how difficult it can be to engage with climate change when the conversation is framed entirely through catastrophe.

We wanted to create something that acknowledges the seriousness of the situation without becoming paralysing. There's humour in the show. There's music, movement, flirtation, absurdity and moments of genuine joy. We wanted to make space for contradiction.

The piece doesn't pretend everything is fine, but it also doesn't assume that fear is the most effective way of connecting people to these issues. We're interested in curiosity, imagination

and emotional connection as well.

Q) How has this collaboration with Dr Matra Payo Payo influenced the piece?

Marta's influence has been incredibly important.

One of the things that fascinated us was her work in numerical modelling. Scientists create different models and scenarios to understand how coastlines might change in the future depending on the choices we make today. We became interested in the idea that the future isn't fixed but exists as a series of possibilities.

That thinking became central to the structure of the show. Rather than presenting one vision of 2050, audiences encounter several possible futures. Marta also introduced us to ideas around coastal adaptation, including nature-based solutions such as salt marshes, seagrass beds and oyster reefs, which have influenced some of the more hopeful aspects of the work.

Q) As well as writing the piece, you are both performing in Fish in a Kettle. How has the writing process impacted on the way you wish to approach the show as actors?

Because the show was devised rather than traditionally written, the writing and performing processes have always been intertwined.

The characters emerged through improvisation, movement and experimentation in the rehearsal room, so in many ways we've grown alongside them. We weren't sitting at a desk inventing people and then later stepping into their shoes. We discovered them through performing.

As actors, that gives us a very strong sense of ownership and understanding of the material. At the same time, immersive theatre requires a lot of presence and responsiveness. Once audiences enter the space, the show becomes a live conversation with them, and that's something we're really excited about.

Q) The three central characters personify dimensions of the Ocean. How did you approach creating those personalities?

We became interested in the idea that the Ocean isn't one thing. It's nurturing and destructive, beautiful and frightening, ancient and constantly changing. Coral represents care, community and interdependence. Penelope is connected to waiting, memory and beauty. Sal is impulsive, emotional, joyful and volatile. Together they allowed us to explore different emotional relationships with the sea and different responses to change. Rather than presenting the Ocean as a single symbolic figure, we wanted it to feel complex, contradictory and strangely human.

Q) After spending so much time imagining 2050, has it changed the way you think about the future?

I think it's made us more comfortable with uncertainty.

The further we got into the research, the more obvious it became that there isn't one future waiting for us. There are many possible futures, and we're already shaping them through the decisions we make individually and collectively.

It's also made us more hopeful in some ways. Spending time with scientists, community groups and people actively working on solutions reminded us that alongside all the challenges, there is also creativity, resilience and care. As a theatre collective who are very passionate about collaboration and community we feel buoyed by discovering the relevance of this values in climate solutions.

The future isn't something that simply happens to us. It's something we're constantly participating in.

Q) Why should audiences come along?

Because it's unlike a conventional night at the theatre.

You can come for the immersive experience, the performances, the music, the climate themes, the strange characters or simply because you're curious about what a house party hosted by the Ocean might look like.

Ultimately, Fish in a Kettle is an invitation to spend an evening imagining possible futures together. It's funny, strange, intimate and occasionally chaotic. We hope audiences leave having had a great night out and perhaps seeing the world around them a little differently.

Fish in a Kettle plays at the Fabric Studios in Liverpool until Saturday 30th May - tickets and more information can be found here.

Photography by Lab Rats Collective, Adam Hills and YELLOWBELLY