Winner of both the Audience Choice Award and the Jury Prize at the 2024 Porte Parole Pitch, That Which Cannot Be Split is currently in development.
That Which Cannot Be Split is a documentary play exploring the role humanity’s most controversial energy source—nuclear power—might play in our future. The play follows Jesse, a documentary filmmaker whose early career championed the rise of renewable energy. When a series of real-life reckonings challenge his faith in wind turbines and solar panels, Jesse takes an interest in the forbidden force inside the atom. To the surprise, and often disappointment, of those around him.
Interwoven with Jesse’s journey is the little-known history of the scientists who first discovered atomic energy, and the dream that inspired their work: a world free of misery and pollution. Their optimistic vision is contrasted with the real-world results so far.
The play will ask: In a world saturated with information, how does anyone come to believe what they believe about complicated challenges like energy and climate change? What are the consequences of changing your mind on a highly-political issue? Should humanity trust itself to harness nuclear energy? And perhaps more importantly…Do we even have a choice?
THE 2024 PORTE PAROLE PITCH
Watch the highlights of Jesse Freeston’s pitch for That Which Cannot Be Split at the 2024 Porte Parole Pitch.
Jesse Freeston
Jesse Freeston is a documentary filmmaker, journalist and performer now enthusiastically embarking on his first piece of documentary theatre. At the 2024 Porte Parole Pitch he won both the jury prize and the audience prize for That Which Cannot Be Split.
Work in progress
Jesse created a YouTube series with Decouple media breaking down the fundamentals of ‘decoupling’ human material well-being from its ecological impacts – and explored many facets of the nuclear question in the process. Some of the ideas first explored in that series will continue to resonate on the stage in That Which Cannot Be Split.
Video still from Jesse Freeston's YouTube series with Decouple media Video still from Jesse Freeston's YouTube series with Decouple media Video still from Jesse Freeston's YouTube series with Decouple media Video still from Jesse Freeston's YouTube series with Decouple media Video still from Jesse Freeston's YouTube series with Decouple media ScreenshotVideo still from Jesse Freeston's YouTube series with Decouple media
