London
2071 By Duncan Macmillan & Chris Rapley
Royal Court Theatre,
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs,
Sloane Square,
London SW1W 8AS
Mon-Sat 7.45pm; Thurs, Sat mats 3.30pm
Runs: 75mins without interval, to 15 11 14
TICKETS 020 7565 -5000
In person: Mon–Sat, 10am-start of perf or 6pm if no show
On-line: www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk
Age guidance: 14+
Mondays all tickets £10; concs £5 off two top prices on daily standby; for 25s and under; School and HE groups of 8+; groups of 6+
Access: £12 + companion
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability
Review: by Carole Woddis of performance seen Nov 6, 2014:
No messing about, a cut to the chase.
As a subject, it doesn’t come much more dramatic than climate change and what is happening to our planet. Right now. So how do you get the message over? What is the most effective way of energising people to take note?
Some of our best contemporary playwrights have had a go at it, Steve Waters (Contingency Plan), Richard Bean (The Heretic) and Mike Bartlett (Earthquakes in London) to name but a few. Even the National had a go with the collaborative Greenland.
Katie Mitchell has cut to the chase. After working on Ten Billion (about over-population), she’s now brought in writer Duncan Macmillan (Lungs) and celebrated climate scientist Chris Rapley to deliver 75 mins of sombre factual delineation that proves incontrovertibly that we are on the edge of a climactic precipice. Whether you look to the sky, the sea, the ice-caps or on the ground, the evidence stacks up. And not just over the past year, two years, decade, or century.
Rapley, Professor of Climate Science at University College London and a continuing leading light in global climate debate looks back 4 billion years and steadily shows how despite regular – well give or take a millennia or two – fluctuations in warming, followed by ice ages, the speed of the dis-equilibrium of our eco system has become unprecedented.
The problem is, sitting like some avuncular grandfather (which he is) backed by stunningly syncronised video projections, morphing from melting ice caps into geophysical maps and a plethora of zigzagging graphs, you begin to ask yourself, is this theatre? Can a man reciting facts like a fireside chat, albeit illustrated by highly sophisticated technical visuals amount to what we normally call `theatre’?
As Peter Brook might say, it only takes an audience to make theatre – listeners bearing witness. Like tectonic plates moving, I’d be amazed if the effect of last night’s `lecture-demo’ didn’t shift perceptions in the coming months.
The Big Idea is to do something. It has to be done globally and together. Fossil fuels and carbon emissions have to be cut. I’ve no doubt 2071 is one more step along the road to making that happen.
2071
By Duncan Macmillan & Chris Rapley
Performed by Chris Rapley
Director: Katie Mitchell
Designer:Chloe Lamford
Lighting Designer: Jack Knowles
Video Designer: Luke Halls
Composer: Paul Clark
Sound Designers: Max and Ben Ringham
Associate Director: Lily McLeish
Assistant Director: Kay Michael
Scientific Research Assistant: Stuart Umbo
Produced in co-operation with the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg
Post-show, Nov 11: in conv with Duncan Macmillan, Chris Rapley and Katie Mitchell
Day of Action, Nov 15: climatologists, environmentalists and others on fighting climate change including discussion on role of the artists in fighting climate change
World premiere of 2071 at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Sloane Square, London, Nov 5, 2014.
For more info see: www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk
Produced in co-operation with the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg
2014-11-07 20:20:21
