This Friday, a single line of bright red will make its way across the Bourne Bridge, in stark contrast to the steel gray of the bridge girders.
That contrast is what fuels the surprise of an encounter with the Red Rebel Brigade, whose members have been making a red-robed procession over the bridge every Labor Day weekend since 2021.
The Red Rebel Brigade calls itself “a performance troupe dedicated to illuminating the global environmental crisis.” The group evolved out of climate change protests in the U.K. in the early 2000s by global environmental group Extinction Rebellion. James Comiskey, an activist with Extinction Rebellion’s Boston chapter, describes the Red Rebel Brigade as an “arm” of the Extinction Rebellion group, with the groups’ actions “typically done together.” A science-oriented protest by Extinction Rebellion can be “a powerful combination,” he said, when paired with the visual, emotive level of the Brigade’s silent, mime procession.
This year’s walk is on Friday, Aug. 29, beginning around 11 a.m.
A focus on climate issues
According to Comiskey, Extinction Rebellion’s Boston chapter focuses on local environment and climate issues, and the Red Rebel Brigade bridge walk seeks to make people more aware of Cape Cod’s climate vulnerability and fragility.
Gwen Noyes, who lives in Falmouth and Cambridge, organizes the Brigade’s Labor Day weekend walk.
“We try to visually raise people’s awareness … through their emotions,” she said, using the drama of costume and movement. “We are jesters, expressing love, identity with earth, sorrow. … It is an emotional show, not an intellectual one.”
The hope, she said, is people will ask, “What IS this?”
Comiskey added, “We hope to shake people out of their day-to-day stupor. … It’s a call to action.”
As many as 10 “Reds” usually join the annual Bourne Bridge procession. Depending on the weather (those costumes are weighty), the group may make several passes over the bridge. After a crossing, the procession may stop for a break with Extinction Rebellion supporters, who are gathered at the egress from the bridge to support the processors. Following the walk, both groups travel to a local Cape Cod beach to hold another – this time sandy and salty – walk near the ocean.
More about the Red Rebel Brigade costumes
The contrast of color, look and design that accompany a Red Rebel Brigade procession is a big part of its emotional impact. The Brigade was founded in the early 2000s by activist/artist Doug Francisco, who grew up on the Isle of Man. He used his extensive background in street performance and theatre when he began developing protest performances in Europe and in England.
Francisco’s aesthetic calls for head-to-toe bright red costumes, with no flesh visible except for faces, which have uniform white makeup and scarlet lips. Each costume is somewhat different, but the effect is of multiple draped garments of different lengths, perhaps putting one in mind of a shroud. According to Noyes, each member “makes or inherits” their own distinctive headdress.
The resulting effect can be “poetic,” Comiskey said. “You can’t look away.”
The first look at a slowly moving and silent Red Rebel Brigade mime procession can be one of shock. Francisco has suggested the effect can be both “mournful and engaging,” as participants mime emotions such as “awe, praise or sorrow.” Besides its deliberate, slow movements, a procession can include stationary tableaux to great effect, especially those with a dramatic ocean backdrop.
‘We want to communicate at another level’
Many Brigade members, said Noyes, are women who have retired from their careers, including doctors, ministers, teachers or lawyers.
“We’ve talked enough about this (climate crisis); now we want to communicate at another level,” she said.
Longtime community and political activist Peter Waasdorp of Falmouth is part of a supporting group that has joined the Red Rebel Brigade procession each year since the event began. Waasdorp walks the bridge with the Rebels and about 10 other non-costumed supporters. These fellow travelers carry signs and posters, with some including QR codes so that travelers in their cars can quickly identify the goals of the red-clad walkers.
It is “one of the most amazing experiences,” Waasdorp said, adding the group gets a lot of thumbs-up.
“They are different from anyone else,” he said.
“We need beautiful, resilient ideas,” while we work toward our goals, said Comiskey.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: What is the Red Rebel Brigade? Red costumes return to Bourne Bridge
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