Stephen Kunken and Jorge Bosch
(Photo c/o O&M DKC)
The U.S. premiere of the Olivier-nominated political thriller Kyoto has its complete cast and creative team. The play will begin performances at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on October 8 with the official opening set for November 3. The play, written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, is directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, the team behind Stranger Things: The First Shadow. (No gigantic, looming creature will be involved.)
Stephen Kunken, reprising his role as American lawyer and ex-government strategist Don Pearlman, will be joined by Jorge Bosch, reprising his Olivier-nominated role as Argentinian lawyer and conference leader Raul Estrada-Oyuela, Peter Bradbury as climate change skeptic Fred Singer, Kate Burton as USA, Feodor Chin as China, Erin Darke as Germany, Natalie Gold as Shirley, Daniel Jenkins as Gore/Bolin/Santer/Observer, Dariush Kashani as Saudi Arabia, Rob Narita as Japan, Imani Jade Powers as Secretariat, Ferdy Roberts reprising his role as U.K./Prescott/Houghton, Roslyn Ruff as Tanzania and Taiana Tully as Kiribati. Offstage understudies include Odera Adimorah, Zoe Cipres, Luis Carlos de La Lombana and Paul Juhn.
Dramatizing the 1997 meeting where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, Kyoto will be part of Lear deBessonet’s debut season as artistic director of LCT. “At Lincoln Center Theater, we believe theater is where we wrestle with the questions of our time—with rigor, with imagination and with heart,” she said in a statement. “Kyoto is a play that does just that, continuing in the tradition of plays that bring the global stage and the complexities of the world to LCT audiences.
“Kyoto tells the story of how the world overcame deep, intractable differences to reach the first unanimous, binding agreement on climate change,” writers Murphy and Robertson said. “Although this might sound like a fairytale, for us it’s a story which speaks thrillingly, directly—and with hope—to our disjointed times.”
Saving the Earth is a filthy business. Welcome to the Kyoto Conference Centre, December 11, 1997. The nations of the world are in deadlock. Time is running out and a climate change agreement feels a world away. The greatest obstacle: American oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman. Kyoto dramatizes the moment all nations tried to set aside their differences for the sake of the earth. The play asks who gets to decide what’s worth saving when the entire planet is at risk—and what we’re willing to give up so we can move forward together.
AloJapan.com