A UN climate conference is an odd setting for a political thriller. But told through the eyes of a nefarious, oil-obsessed yet unnervingly charming American lawyer, it becomes almost Shakespearean. Kyoto – a Royal Shakespeare Company and Good Chance production written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, and directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin – takes as its focus the 1997 Cop3 negotiations in Japan. A stuffy conference hall locked in a stalemate is transformed into a gripping piece of theatre.
Kyoto’s narrator is Don Pearlman, a fictional lawyer who has been sent to observe and influence the negotiations. His minders are the Seven Sisters, an iniquitous gang and embodiment of the world’s seven major oil companies. Stephen Kunken’s skilful performance as Pearlman allows him – though clearly rather evil – to be almost redeemed by his Willy Loman-esque conviction in the American dream.
He is accompanied by a lively cast of characters which includes the former German chancellor Angela Merkel, the late John Prescott, and a suave but avoidant Al Gore. The audience, too, are encouraged to become part of the action. On entering the theatre everyone is handed their own Cop3 lanyard to put on with its own unique country or role (I was a delegate from Uganda). This small gesture of inclusion feels like a nod to the ubiquity of the effects of climate change – an eerie warning that if this gets worse, we’re all doomed.
While Kyoto gives voice to the urgency of the climate crisis and illustrates the theatrics of international diplomacy, at times its optimism felt misplaced. Had I seen it in 2019, and not as Donald Trump’s return to the White House marks the end of global climate consensus, perhaps I would have felt differently. But with global temperatures higher than they have ever been, such zealous faith in “targets and timelines” is confined to the theatre. Nevertheless, this is a perceptive and absorbing production that shrewdly reminds its audience that there is nothing more exciting than saving the world.
Kyoto
Soho Place, London SW1. Until 3 March 2025
[See also: The contested life of Roger Casement]
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This article appears in the 12 Feb 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The Reformation