The Kyoto climate treaty is hailed on stage but reality tells a different story

A scene from the RSC production of Kyoto, which has transferred to the West End. Photograph: Manuel Harlan

As material for a West End show, the backroom machinations of an international climate conference sound unpromising.

Pedantry, boredom and delegates fighting over the wording of treaty clauses do not sound like the stuff of high drama. Nevertheless, Kyoto, a Royal Shakespeare Company production by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson now playing at Soho Place in London, has been widely praised by critics and rapturously received at its opening this month.