Vignettes across our current end-of-days.
How can we exist in the era of climate disaster? How can we make a future for ourselves in the present when the damage is already done?
“Scenes from the Climate Era” by Australian, Ngunnawal country playwright David Finnigan presents a kaleidoscope of vignettes cataloguing this era of environmental devastation that man has ushered in, spanning from wildfires in Scotland to biblical storms in Wales. This is the Gate Theatre’s only offering of 2025, so all the stops have been pulled for a show that is both timely and memorable.
The Playground Theatre is the canvas for which director and Gate Theatre Artistic Lead Atri Banerjee can paint the scenes of this play upon. Minimal in presentation, the stage is set with a blue circle in its centre, conveying the fragility of our deep blue planet while surrounding it with the clinical white, decked out with curtains associated with a hospital wing: our planet is in desperate need of care.
Finnigan’s script is both ever-expansive and specific, darting across the past, present and future to encompass what it means to live in this current age. We open with a couple discussing the ethics of having a child during the climate era, demonstrating the clear cross roads we are presented with: do we carry on as normal or make changes to our future?
The biggest issue that the play tries to balance is the same problem that plagues climate discourse in political and private spheres alike – why should I care about the planet? Not only is this question tackled head on, the very nature of this dichotomy is imbedded into the fabric of the play. The actors switch briskly between climate conferences and monologues of disasters affecting the average person, but we are rarely implored to be scared or convinced or persuaded by some form of argument. Finnigan presents us with truths that we can digest at our own pace, predictably giving no answers to this crisis but instead suggesting how we can continue to exist through it.
The stages of grief are applied to our relation to the climate crisis, demonstrating how all the feelings we have – denial, optimism, anger, despair – are all natural reactions to a threat that we can no longer avoid. These stages intertwine with the big moments and the small, showcasing how existence is possible in the face of certain change.
The ensemble are stellar: Miles Barrow, Peyvand Sadeghian, Ziggy Heath and Harriet Gordon-Anderson, who carries over from the original Australian run, are always engaging to watch. At times, the abrupt transfer from one scene to the next does not allow for the actors to fully inhabit the roles in the eyes of a viewer, but the moments of levity are incredibly impactful.
A show that always looks to the future, “Scenes from the Climate Era” is a triumph for the Gate Theatre and a must-see production.