Here For Now Theatre review: I Am An Island contrasts community and individual, avoidance and alarmism

From left: Kelly Van der Burg as Sandra, Siobhan O’Malley as May and Nick Dolan as Ben in Here For Now Theatre’s 2026 world-premiere of I Am An Island.

We are all on an island and it is sinking. Is there a life to live somewhere else or do we just live life to the fullest in the time we have left here? Is there an in-between?

Those were the thoughts with which I was left after watching playwright Julia Lederer and director Allison Plamondon’s production of I Am An Island, which ran at Here For Now Theatre earlier this season.

The play is a thinly veiled (or maybe not at all) parable for the modern environmental crisis, balancing two types of responses to the existential threat we’re facing as a species – environmental alarmism with lost-cause avoidance.

In the story, the characters are part of a small community on what was once a picturesque tropical island. The islanders have known for generations that their island was sinking; every resident was taught a song in preschool underscoring that very warning. Yet the residents continued living their happy lives, adorning their island community with handmade trinkets and decorations made from native plants, seashells and other materials for the countless holidays they celebrate throughout the year.

The play’s protagonist, May (Siobhan O’Malley), sees the impending danger and urges her sister, Sandra (Kelly Van der Burg), and her fiancé, Ben (Nick Dolan), and the rest of her community to begin evacuating to another island somewhere else in the world – a wider world reported to be far less idyllic and far more polluted than island life. But the islanders refuse. They have always called the island home, and they have no plans to change that any time soon, despite the continuously and rapidly disappearing shoreline.

Encouraged by an unexpected and pregnant island tourist, April (Brianna Rodrigues), and haunted by the ghost of her grandmother (Barbara Gordon) – who, herself, may have died trying to warn her community about the impending doom before she mysteriously vanished into the ocean – May stages a kind of protest by standing in a hole and gradually sinking with the rest of the island. Meanwhile, Sandra, Ben and the other islanders adapt to their new, more aquatic surroundings, all the while becoming increasingly annoyed with May’s singlemindedness.

By the end of the play, the message is clear. While spreading awareness of the environmental threats we face is crucial, environmental alarmism may only serve to push those who refuse to see the truth further from it. On the other hand, a life without community and a sense of belonging and culture may not be one worth saving.

Beyond the considerable acting talents of each of this production’s five cast members – the emotional depth and increasing division in the relationship between sisters Sandra and May, and the humorous levity with somewhat foreboding undertones offered by the grandmother and April – what really struck me about this production was the production design.

The use of projection and soundscape combined with a relatively simple set – a handcrafted backdrop made to look like waterfalls, a rising “hole” in the middle of the stage meant to depict May’s sinking with the island and numerous island props like aquatic plants, flowers, buckets and fish – fully transported me to this rapidly sinking fictional island while carrying that underlying feeling unease as happiness gradually turns to dread and ultimately acceptance.

As a world premiere, I believe this play carries an important message for humanity and I look forward to seeing it produced by other theatre companies for larger audiences.