Not since the mid-2000s heyday of Lynne Truss’s book Eats, Shoots & Leaves have the ins and outs of punctuation been so firmly centre-stage. Yet amid the strategic hoopla of Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s thriller, an adroit pureeing of a decade of global environmental politicking into an absorbing night of fact-heavy theatre set around a doughnut-shaped conference table, it’s the little details that leap out at you.
We get the impasses, at the Kyoto climate conference in 1997 in the second half and in the conferences leading up to it in the first, as the nations of the world try to agree on legally binding emissions targets. The corruption, grievances, clashes of cultures, clashes of personalities. And then there are the hours spent over commas, full stops and adjectives as everyone tries to get what they want or avoid giving their rivals what they want. The back-and-forth between America and other countries over the wording of whether rising sea levels “could” or “would” threaten humanity’s survival. First seen in Stratford-upon-Avon last summer, this RSC production is unabashedly in the weeds with its characters.
If you want a lucid breakdown of the impact of climate change, this isn’t quite your show. It’s about process more than principle. But the smush of disputes that led up to almost every nation ratifying a curb on emissions is filleted smartly enough that it stays gripping almost throughout. And the storytelling is cleverly filtered through our antihero Don Pearlman, the American oil lobbyist who sets out to resist change for reasons both mercenary and heartfelt.
It’s a great central performance by the American actor Stephen Kunken (Billions, The Handmaid’s Tale). He emits wiry, irked brio throughout as he narrates and interacts with Jenna Augen as his wife, Shirley, and the other 12 cast members as delegates, oil executives and politicians.
Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin’s production barrels along, though it could do with more changes of pace. If this is infotainment, it’s infotainment deluxe. And it’s alive with drumming, stand-up comedy monologues, self-aware jokes, nods to the present day. Miriam Buether’s set is bookended by screens showing maps, footage, data. It’s never dull.
Most stories have big bold wins and losses. Here, two characters that start out as comic relief, Britain’s John Prescott (Ferdy Roberts) and the Argentinian chairman Raúl Estrada-Oyuela (Jorge Bosch), become pivotal. Kyoto ends with the big hoorah of the decisive action that is taken, but also the footnotes and fudges of real politics, where truces are for ever temporary.
★★★★☆
155min
To May 3, Sohoplace, W1, sohoplace.org
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