“Stage one: denial.
Stage two: optimism. Solutions.
Stage three: grief. Anger. Despair.”
If there’s one thing that’s made clear right from the beginning of Gate Theatre’s production of Scenes From The Climate Era, it’s that this is not a show that intends to coddle us. Told through a series of over 60 mini-plays, director Atri Banerjee brings a bold, uncompromising, and witty adaptation of David Finnigan’s 2023 play to The Playground Theatre. It’s through these snippets that four phenomenal actors slingshot us back and forth through time, mixing a reverence for what we’ve lost into a dark satire that ponders what this world has to come.
In many ways, it’s fitting that Banerjee and the team manage to make such effective use of their minimalist set. The cast uses every inch of the room with intention, never wasting a single movement or position; every corner the actors dance in or stride through has purpose, every prop is used to maximum effect, and by the end of the show, it feels as though no stone has been left unturned.
With the sheer number of vignettes and the density of the dialogue, a production like Scenes From The Climate Era lives or dies by its cast. Fortunately, with Miles Barrow, Harriet Gordon-Anderson, Ziggy Heath, and Peyvand Sadeghian, the show not only survives, it thrives. The players weave in and out of wildly different stories with a dramatic dexterity that makes it seem easy. Each of them has a wide array of identities, personas, and emotions to portray, gracefully offering up different versions of characters in various stages of denial, optimism, and despair.
Despite the excellent performances, however, it’s hard not to feel that they are somewhat hampered by dialogue that can be a bit too clever for its own good. There are moments of simple, beautiful lucidity in the production, set pieces where the dialogue is minimal and the audience is asked to experience the storytelling through our senses. Conversely, there can also be moments where the dialogue is heavy-handed, blunt, and inaccessible in a way that leaves one hoping that the next scene finds more creative ways to show rather than tell. It should be noted, though, that these moments are few and far between, and heavily outweighed by thoughtful, funny, brutally honest, heartbreaking, and clever snippets that deliver a storytelling feast.
So if you’re looking for a play that holds your hand, comforts you, and emphasises the light at the end of the tunnel, you might struggle with this one. In some ways, the big advantage that Scenes From The Climate Era has is also what makes it so harrowing; the Gate Theatre production isn’t afraid to sit in despair, to allow moments of mourning, to air out feelings of frustration, hopelessness, and fear. But it’s these things, along with a healthy dose of British millennial gallows humour, that make the show such an essential and rewarding watch.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
