Now here’s what a theatre dedicated to new work should be doing. Steve Waters’s gripping double bill on the ever-looming subject of climate change provides some of the very finest dramatic components London has seen this year: sophisticated writing, slick direction and superlative acting.
These urgent pieces can stand alone but I would heartily recommend seeing both, starting with On The Beach. Glaciologist Will Paxton (Geoffrey Streatfeild) has returned from Antarctica to inform his hermit-like parents that he will be taking up a government advisory post. His father, whose own research on melting ice caps proved too advanced for his time, is vehemently opposed.
In Resilience, Will is in Whitehall as Cameron’s dithering Conservative government tries to decide whether to act on predictions of approaching tidal waves.
Waters has done a huge number of things right here, not least in leavening his all-too-believable Armageddon scenario with dialogue crackling with sardonic humour. He provides deliciously meaty roles for five actors, and it’s a star-making turn from the passionate Streatfeild, who wrenchingly portrays a man for whom the political becomes very personal indeed.
There’s stylish direction from Michael Longhurst and, especially, Tamara Harvey, who cleverly ratchets up the thriller element of Resilience. Will these ministers make the right decision before the sea arrives inland? In fiction as in fact, we can only hope.
The Contingency Plan (Resilience/On The Beach)
The Bush Theatre
Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, W12 8QD
