The Contingency Plan - On the Beach and Resilience **** TNT
Interest rates may be dropping, but the level of the world’s oceans is going the other way – and fast – in this excellent pair of climate change plays set in the near future and penned by the aptly named Steve Waters. Though the action they describe takes place almost simultaneously (the second acts of both overlap precisely) each play stands alone whilst complementing the other.
On the Beach takes the more personal approach, with Antarctic glaciologist Will returning to the reclaimed Norfolk marsh where his parents Robin (in whose career footsteps he’s followed) and Jenny, have made their home since before his birth. Here Robin has retreated from academic life following a nervous breakdown brought on by the rejection of his own scientific observations almost four decades earlier.
Set in a Whitehall cabinet room, with a Conservative government in power and the threat of a tidal flood looming, Resilience is more overtly political. But once again the conflict between what science predicts and self-serving expediency dictates is at the core of the growing tension between the protagonists.
Well researched and constructed with a wit and fluency which marks Waters out as a playwright to be watched, both plays are as strongly acted as they’re written. The performances are first rate throughout - Geoffrey Streatfeild makes a passionate, slightly unworldly Will; Robin Soans and Susan Brown double effectively as his devoted parents and, respectively, Robin’s former back-stabbing colleague turned government scientific advisor and the tough Minister for Resilience, Tessa. David Bark-Jones’ incoming Minster for Climate Change (newly appointed thanks to the old boy network) makes an unexpectedly effective adversary despite his primary concern for his holiday cottage, and Stephanie Street’s senior Civil Servant wraps steely determination in a loving, sensuous cocoon to push boyfriend Will into the political sphere.
The result is gripping, topical drama and a double bill that shouldn’t be missed.
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