Astonishingly, writers Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson have fashioned a taut and gripping thriller from 10 years of international climate change negotiations that resulted in the symbolically huge but eventually neutered 1997 Kyoto protocol. Their play gets a bravura, showmanlike production from directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin for the Royal Shakespeare Company – a troupe that’s alive to big themes, betrayals and manipulations, and the slipperiness of language, which is important here.
A strong ensemble showcases a seductively charismatic central performance from Stephen Kunken, recognisable from Billions, The Handmaid’s Tale, and many more. Here, he’s lawyer Don Pearlman, a strutting stork of a man funded by Big Oil and driven by American exceptionalism to thwart, undermine or derail any consensus on limiting carbon emissions.
