Review: Scenes from the Climate Era

How does one go about staging existential dread? The Cambridge Amateur Dramatics Society answers in Scenes from the Climate Era: Through vignette.

Entering the ADC, I was met by a screen showing ecological vistas, impassive crowds, aerial views, chemical works, breaking waves, landfill sites, as a visual precursor of the scale that the production would go about contending with. I noticed the usual student turnout, but also an older contingent- and lots of notebooks ready to take down impressions- clearly demarking a show that anticipates prompting reflection.

These looping videos had me, and I imagine much of the audience, lulled into a false sense of cinema: but we were not here to watch a movie, Scenes from the Climate Era is very much live, and all the better for it. Then, the voice of Stephen Fry, and the show begins.

via Teagan Rice

Since its Australian premiere in 2023, Scenes from the Climate Era has travelled to the Philippines, New Zealand, Singapore, and London. Each production uniquely adapts to the new context in collaboration with local artists and communities. This version sees all-new scenes written by students in Cambridge. A favourite was Kaya Yapp’s case for accountability around student usage of generative AI, which prompted much discussion in the interval.

via Teagan Rice

The task that director Edward Campbell undertakes is staging the entire Anthropocene on the scale of the individual life. The documentary style voiceover orientates us in space and time, and the production oscillates from staging the history of climate denial, the psychological toll of understanding one’s own situation, to indicating likely future ventures in mediating consequences of global warming.

It is also interdisciplinary, using mock up street interviews to imagine near futures where air flight is phased out, managing to be playful with such existentially loaded subject matter in a fashion that didn’t come across as heavy handed but rather symptomatic of that glibness that often accompanies contending with the climate crisis.

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via Teagan Rice

The production is endlessly engaging, and startlingly interactive: I must say, this is the first show I’ve seen at the ADC to encourage me to key a car. The small ensemble cast thrived at playing distinct and meaningful multiple roles, if the physicality sometimes felt slightly over stylised, each monologue felt earnt and every scene devolved a new vantage on the climate crisis, and brief emotional insight.

I felt the production sometimes tripped over itself in its first half, but nevertheless possessed real power to move. Scenes from the Climate Era is also deeply funny when called upon to be. In their capacity to cycle through characters so quickly, I applaud the ensemble for keeping their footing. The production really finds its stride as it moves into its second half, contending with 6,000 years of sustainable eel farming, discussing preventative measures in the smoking area of a club, and musing on whether or not you can write a climate-change anthem.

The production was at its best when it stages these radical shifts in perspective, using changing soundscapes to follow consecutive decades through birdsong into silence. The use of montage is implemented beautifully throughout and lands consecutive blows in the production’s closing sequence; a powerful and thought-provoking main show – 4/5.

Scenes from the Climate Era is showing in the ADC at 7:45 until Saturday 16th May- grab your tickets here! 

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Featured image via Teagan Rice