Review: Scenes from a Climate Era, Auckland Theatre Company and Silo Theatre

The cast of Scenes from a Climate Era - clockwise from top left, Sean Dioneda Rivera, Arlo Green, Nī Dekkers-Reihana, Dawn Cheong and Amanda Tito.

In one of the early scenes in Scenes from a Climate Era, simply titled ‘Tomorrow Morning’, one friend calls another to discuss what happened the night before. The one who picks up immediately panics and apologises for being rude about seeing the play, admitting that they just wanted to see “something fun” after work and a depressing play about the climate isn’t quite for them.

The friend, it turns out, actually was calling to reveal they have herpes.

It’s only a short scene - one, maybe two minutes, certainly not the longest of the dozens that are fired at the audience over the course of 80 minutes - but it perfectly captures the vibe of Scenes from a Climate Era. The latest collaboration between Auckland Theatre Company and Silo Theatre is self-aware enough that this may not be the most appealing of subject matters, but it finds every opportunity it can to entertain.

Written by Australian David Finnigan, but tweaked to include a multitude of local references, this work could best be compared to ATC’s similarly titled Scenes from a Yellow Peril. While that work was a comparatively tight 14 scenes, you lose track of how many there are here, with most only lasting a few minutes before the location, staging, tone and performers seamlessly transition to another.

It starts with a couple debating about whether it’s right to have a child and bring more emissions into the world. We then pivot to a duo of scientists in the 70s debating early climate science before a TV performance. Two women dance at a nightclub after one of them has spent the day trying to block out the sun. A panel debates solar and wind farms in Northland. Chinese scientists try to stop an Antarctic glacier from collapsing into the sea.

Scenes from a Climate Era is the new work from Auckland Theatre Company and Silo Theatre. From left - Natalie Tito, Dawn Cheong, Arlo Green and Nī Dekkers-Reihana.

The scenes move fast, many lasting less than five minutes before pivoting to the next. Each one feels the perfect length, selling the individual message and arc succinctly before changing. It helps the play feel fast and punchy, and prevents it from feeling preachy or overly grim. Finnigan adds humour and reliability to each character, so even the scenes that do dig into the trauma of facing our potential doom, or discuss different aspects of the science, remain engaging.

Director Jason Te Kare and the five cast members who portray every character - Dawn Cheong, Nī Dekkers-Reihana, Arlo Green, Sean Dionea Rivera and Amanda Tito - are tasked with bringing Finnigan’s words to life, and are key to making this entertaining. Rivera brings much of the comedy, notably as a “full-time grandfather” and bird enthusiast unimpressed with wind farms, though Green, mostly given angrier roles requiring accent work the rest of the shows, lights up in a deliberately awkward scene as an American guru trying to restart coral reefs. Cheong has the longest monologues of the cast and brings the gravitas to sell each one, while Tito and Dekkers-Reihana blend comedy and theatre in each of their performances.

The show is presented in the round at Q’s Rangatira theatre, and spatial designers Jane Hakaraia and Nati Pereira went simple but effective with seven rolls of blue plastic that adapt to become a courtroom, an Australian river, a banker’s office, a habitat for a lonely frog, aided by fluid lighting choices that change during the show to bring new layers to the performance.

There are a few attempts at having some connective throughlines during the play - a reference to ‘the one climate anthem’, one of Tito’s characters that appears initially in brief mentions - but they are only sparsely referenced throughout the play, so their eventual payoff isn’t as strong as it could have been. But while not every scene in this busy play is going to work, as a collective, Scenes from a Climate Era is entertaining and engaging, with wonderful performances and staging. It packages its message in a way that may actually inspire some change, but mostly it succeeds in providing a sprinkle of hope in an otherwise hopeless scenario.

Scenes from a Climate Era is on at Q Theatre until August 24th.