From right: Aïcha Kossoko (Tanzania), Kwong Loke (China) and Andrea Gatchalian (Kiribati) perform in “Kyoto.” Credit: Manuel Harlan Negotiations over the 1997 United Nations climate agreement might not seem the sort of stuff that could draw sold-out audiences to London’s West End. Think again. “Kyoto,” a play that dramatizes the first legally binding global pact to set emission targets is a hot ticket. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Good Chance Productions, “Kyoto” was conceived by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, young playwrights whose previous collaborations include “The Jungle,” an award-winning drama about a refugee encampment near the port of Calais, France. “Kyoto” premiered in 2024 in Stratford-Upon-Avon and opened in January in London at @sohoplace. Murphy and Robertson recently chatted with Inside Climate News about their work. The talks leading to the Kyoto Protocol, they found, offered a way to explain the stakes of a warming planet and the convictions of the scientists, delegates and lawyers, including a wily American lobbyist named Donald Pearlman who participated. We’re hiring! Please take a look at the new openings in our newsroom. See jobs The playwrights have silkened the sticky jargon of U.N. reports into sometimes humorous, clear and often sobering dialogue. Audience members slip on lanyards—tagging themselves as if delegates—when they enter the theater-in-the-round, a hint that no one can be just an observer to climate change. Here is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation. CHRISTINE SPOLAR: How did you decide climate change could be good theater? JOE MURPHY: I think if we were setting out originally with that question, we might still be here. It’s a difficult subject, and it’s difficult for all its immense complexities. … But actually, the way that we came at it was from a sense of concern about political polarization. In truth, […]
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