Kyoto: Climate Drama Takes the Stage
From diplomatic jargon to intriguing drama, the RSC's 'Kyoto' transforms climate negotiations into a theatrical masterpiece, where commas become life-changing and Big Oil plays the villain.
Credits to RSC
Picture this: It's 1997, the Spice Girls are topping the charts, and world leaders are squabbling over commas in a Japanese conference room. No, it's not a fever dream - it's the birth of the Kyoto Protocol, now reimagined for the stage in the Royal Shakespeare Company's latest production, "Kyoto".
Move over, Shakespeare - climate change is the new star of the show. Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's play transforms what could have been a snoozefest of diplomatic jargon into a riveting drama that would make even the most ardent climate deniers sit up and take notice.
Imagine "House of Cards" meets "An Inconvenient Truth", with a dash of "The Office" thrown in for good measure. That's "Kyoto" for you. The play revolves around heated debates over whether to use "could" or "would" when discussing sea level rise. Who knew punctuation could be so thrilling? It's like watching a high-stakes game of Scrabble, only the losers might end up underwater.
The star of the show? Don Pearlman, a Republican lawyer who crashed the climate party on behalf of Big Oil. Played by Stephen Kunken, Pearlman is the Voldemort of the climate world - so despicably charming you can't help but be fascinated. He's like the Salieri to Mother Nature's Mozart, only with more quips about the hypocrisy of flying to save the planet.
Directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin have pulled out all the stops. The set? An oval conference table where some unlucky audience members get to play delegate for a night. It's like dinner theater, minus the dinner and plus a heaping serving of existential dread.
The cast is stellar, with Raad Rawi as the Saudi delegate and Nancy Crane as the US representative stealing the show. They embody the complexities of international politics so well, you'd think they were actual diplomats moonlighting as actors.
But "Kyoto" isn't just a history lesson with better lighting. It's a mirror held up to our present, reflecting the ongoing tug-of-war between economic interests and environmental necessities. It's as relevant today as a tweet about the latest climate disaster.
As we file out of the theater, we're left pondering how those heated debates over Oxford commas and subjunctive moods have shaped our world today. It's a stark reminder that in the climate change saga, we're all actors on the global stage - and there are no small parts.
"Kyoto" proves that even the driest of topics can make for electrifying theater. Who knows? Maybe next season we'll see "The Paris Agreement: The Musical". Until then, "Kyoto" serves as a witty, poignant reminder of our climate past - and a call to action for our future. After all, in this climate crisis, we're all hoping for a Hollywood ending.
