The English Guide to...

[I wrote this post back in January following the second night of the performance's original two week run at the Royal Court. The tour of this play continues into 2015.] Samuel Beckett, I have begun to realise, is quite a big deal for those who know theatre. An Irish playwright who spent much of his adulthood in Paris writing in both French and English, he is a figurehead of something called 'theatre of the absurd'. The only previous knowledge I had of Beckett's work is a rather well known play called 'Waiting for Godot' of which knowledge, the majority comes from Sesame Street's version of the play renamed 'Waiting for Elmo' which you can see here ( http://youtu.be/ksL_7WrhWOc ) Waiting for Godot is a play about basically nothing at all (except perhaps the writer's own existential crisis) and features two characters called Vladimir and Estragon (or Grover and Telly Monster) as they wait for Godot (or Elmo) endlessly and fruitlessly wh...

I wasn't sure what to expect of the performance on Thursday evening. A form of 'verbatim' theatre involving a leading climate scientist and directed by Katie Mitchell, who previously explored the future of human life on Earth through the lens of a scientist in Ten Billion with scientist Stephen Emmott. Will there be acting involved? Will we be subjected to corporate-style PowerPoint presentations?  The play seeks to ask what legacy we as a species are leaving for future generations, whether we are responsible, and what- if anything- can be done to slow the (literally) rising tides.  In this performance Chris Rapley, professor of climate science at UCL takes centre stage, alone, to deliver what is essentially a lecture. But it is more than that. The set is simple, a dark stage containing a simple chair to the right hand side, a glass of water on the adjacent table. As our scientist humbly takes the stage there is no fanfare, the lights are dim and we can truly see t...