An ambitious but promising piece of environmental futurism at Battersea’s beloved Theatre503.
Pulling off a ninety-minute piece of environmental futurism is no easy task – especially when few people these days feel like thinking about climate change, let alone the future. This unassuming three-hander, playing for a limited run at Theatre503, does an astonishingly good job at cracking open that can of worms.
Written and directed by Tamsin Flower, Back to Terra Firma follows a Romeo & Juliet– like story, mapped onto a near-future England split in two: City and Farmland. Ollie (Linn Johansson), a medical saleswoman from the City, and James (Matthew Coulton), a Farmland official, have to navigate the boundaries of their two very separate worlds as they fall in love. As they do so, they sift through the nuances, perks, and risks of their two extremes of living – one very poor, yet in harmony with the Earth (Farmland); the other wealthy and well-armored against it (City). Through James’ and Ollie’s budding relationship and its nature as a story set in the future, Back to Terra Firma reckons subtly with present-day anxiety about how to live “correctly” in step with the natural world and the boundaries we constantly have to cross in order to do so.
There were quite a few bits that got lost in the weedy details – nothing out of the ordinary for a piece set in an unfamiliar geopolitical future. There were, understandably, quite a few rules to clarify in this new world of Terra Firma. It wasn’t clear, for example, where the feral boy that James takes care of came from or how – prior to landing on Terra Firma – he’d gotten mixed up with a child army of incels and eco-terrorists. Or why, given that background, anyone thought it worthwhile to “rehabilitate” the kid. It also, more generally, wasn’t clear just how dire the state of the Farmlanders was, which muddied the stakes to a degree.
The maze of detail, however, was effectively cancelled out by the combined talent of the show’s cast as well as its brilliantly simple approach to staging.
Put simply, the evening was a testament to grounded actors and wheeled set pieces. The drastic theatrical changes demanded as the play’s action migrated between Farmland and City were no match for this cast’s carefully choreographed set transformations. For a story in which a rooted sense of place – either City or Farmland – was vital for the characters and audience, Back to Terra Firma couldn’t have lived up to its title more, creating in a fringe theatre what even the most well-funded productions on the biggest stages often fail to achieve: a believable home for its characters.
I’m particularly hopeful about this humble little piece of environmental futurist theatre. Back to Terra Firma has all the elements it needs – a phenomenal cast, tasteful direction, and a highly relevant smattering of prescient themes – to take its next step forward, into its own exciting future.