Venue: SBW Stables Theatre (Kings Cross NSW), Feb 23 – Apr 7, 2018
Playwright: David Finnigan
Director: Lee Lewis
Cast: Eden Falk, Sheridan Harbridge, Emily Havea, Rebecca Massey, Lucia Mastrantone
Images by Brett Boardman
Theatre review
In the current state of evolution with information technology, it can often seem that everyone has extremist tendencies. As social media becomes an increasingly rudimentary part of modern existence, we are compelled to contribute to its constant stream of content creation, by discovering voices that we never before possessed. We manufacture opinions and outrage, in order to participate in the new society, to feel that sense of belonging every human requires.
As a result, we are more fractured than ever. Everything turns into contestable binaries, and every person must take a position on all matters. Ambivalence or disinterest has no place in this iteration of Western civilisation. In David Finnigan’s Kill Climate Deniers, the idea of an extremist shifts from anomaly to commonplace, and all its characters hold strong adversarial views about the strangely contentious issue of climate change. As its title suggests, “terrorist activity” fuels the narrative of Finnigan’s play, but it is only good intentions that we find guiding its ruminations.
In an anarchic fantasy, where our real-life passions are transformed into radical action, it is not the decimation of the other side that Finnigan wishes to accomplish, but an understanding of opposing perspectives that he hopes for. By imagining a worst case scenario, in which everyone loses, doors are open for a discussion that aims to unite us. We are accustom to looking at all the differences between left and right, but Finnigan is interested in finding similarities.
It is however, a stylistically progressive piece of writing, with an aggressive sense of the haphazard driving its plot, in firm repudiation of traditional storytelling structures. Director Lee Lewis brings a wildness to proceedings that captivate with a caustic energy. Trent Suidgeest’s lights and Steve Toulmin’s sounds bring organised chaos to the stage, for a show that is unpredictable and messy, occasionally frustrating, but ultimately persuasive with its spirit and conviction.
Actors are charismatic, each one proving themselves to be seasoned and skillful, consummate entertainers we can rely on. Sheridan Harbridge and Rebecca Massey are irresistibly appealing with the broad comedy that emanates effortlessly from every fibre of their being. Emily Havea and Lucia Mastrantone deliver stronger acerbity to the politics at play, both impressive with the authentic gravity they introduce into the important issues being dissected. Eden Falk is perfectly cast as narrator/author, tenaciously believable and endearing, offering us a marvellously coherent interpretation of the text’s complex nuances.
The point of Kill Climate Deniers is neither controversial nor unexpected, but the experience it provides is unforgettably exhilarating. It is theatre that grabs you and throws you around, impressive in its inexhaustible capacity to keep us fascinated. At the end though, it is an extremely tall order for any work about climate change to be satisfying. Art can help us move towards resolution (if we allow ourselves to be completely optimistic), but there is perhaps no way any artist can give us a solution to those problems. What the play wants to say, is anticlimactic, but it remains true, that change requires action, and we are poised at a crossroads where our choices will determine our very survival.
Suzy Goes See 