Friday, 4 March 2011

Greenland TNT

With its barely integrated strands, this multi-authored climate change concoction has the hallmark of too many cooks (four playwrights and a dramaturg) and never really grips.

It’s moderately interesting some of the time, but it’s so bitty and lacking in dramatic depth that Lisa’s decision - as she floats overhead in a shopping trolley - to become an activist rather than a teacher, a pair of rowing lesbians with different viewpoints, plus a flirtation between an Ed Miliband aide and a climate modelling scientist en route to the Copenhagen summit, are all almost instantly forgettable.

The highlight of Bijan Sheibani’s production is a fantastic life-size polar bear which lumbers up to a guillemot-studying Arctic ornithologist, sniffs his boots, decides he’s not worth the effort, and ambles off again. Wise bear.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk Until 2nd April (£12 - £30)

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