Peter Kesterton's new play about the seeming orthodoxy of thought on climate change makes heavy weather of the issue. Its central question, buried deep in two hours that never ring true dramatically, is a reasonable, potentially interesting, one. "How do we know what we know?" asks graduate student Jess, whose research challenges greenhouse gas theories. But the creative exploration of this, in a university setting, with four characters driven by power relations, love tangles and their own fierce ambitions, is suffocated by the subject.
The problem lies with the leaden writing. Dialogue never rings true, relationships are sketched but not developed, and the plot takes a predictable course. There are far too many ponderous climate metaphors, and a running theme of freak weather mirroring the unconvincing action. Holly Wilson's direction tries to cope with the hefty themes and overambitious text by getting her cast to act big in a small space. The result is underwhelming overacting.
The cast do their best with cardboard cut-out characters: the rebel professor, the passionate PhD student, the hard-faced female politician whose steel stems from a broken heart, the climate change protestor who will listen to no other point of view. Fine young actors such as Isla Carter, as Jess, and Sam Benjamin (who as student Toby gives the best performance of the night, possibly because his lines are marginally less clunky) struggle to breathe life into their roles, though they are both fluid, charismatic performers. Geoffrey Abbott, as Professor Berry, seems lost, acting the iconoclastic academic largely by putting his hands in his jacket pockets. Sadly, whatever strategies the actors employ, it is impossible to suspend disbelief, and just as hard to care.
