Royal Shakespeare Company bring Kyoto agreement to Soho…
This week, Wednesday 11 December 2024, was the 27th anniversary of the landmark Kyoto agreement, the first international treaty to cut emissions and a historic moment in global climate legislation.
To coincide with this milestone, producers the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Good Chance, Rachel Styne and Jessica Foung announce full casting for their theatre production Kyoto which tells the extraordinary story of an unlikely group of international diplomats, scientists, politicians and activists working together to reach the first global agreement on climate change.
The late John Prescott, former UK Deputy Prime Minister (1997-2007) previously reflected on negotiations at Kyoto: ‘How do you get 150 countries to agree, when everyone has a veto? Kyoto in 1997 was like an enormous jigsaw puzzle. After a final round of hard bargaining, we reached agreement as dawn approached. We just kept going, 48 hours without sleep, finding compromise and wearing down opposition. But we got there in the end. You could call it ‘diplomacy by exhaustion’.’
Dr Joanna Depledge, a member of the UN Secretariat Team at Kyoto on the impact of the summit: ‘Although still far too slow, the progress since Kyoto is real. The Kyoto Conference showed what could be accomplished with political will, imagination, and courage.’
World renowned Climate Scientist Ben Santer, whose research was instrumental to the Kyoto agreement, commented on the theatre production: ‘I hope Kyoto reaches audiences I could never dream of reaching through all the scientific papers I’ve ever written. And I hope it provides us with what mathematicians call an existence principle—proof that something difficult is possible. The existence principle in Kyoto is that humanity can come together and solve a seemingly intractable problem.’
Global in scale and yet personal at heart, the RSC and Good Chance production of Kyoto is a fast-paced, politically charged thriller which places audiences at the heart of the 1997 climate summit, a world where big oil, big money and big egos clash in the battle to secure the world’s first legally binding emissions targets.
Written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson and directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, Kyoto transfers to @sohoplace from 9 January – 3 May 2025 direct from its world premiere run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Welcome to the Kyoto Conference Centre, 11 December 1997. The nations of the world are in deadlock and 11 hours have passed since the UN’s landmark climate conference should have ended. Time is running out and agreement feels a world away. The greatest obstacle: American oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman…
Tony award-nominated actor Stephen Kunken will reprise his celebrated role as American oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman. Also returning to the cast are Jenna Augen (Shirley), Olivia Barrowclough (Secretariat), Jorge Bosch (Raúl Estrada-Oyuela), Nancy Crane (USA), Andrea Gatchalian (Kiribati), Togo Igawa (Japan), Kwong Loke (China), Dale Rapley (Bolin, Santer, Gore), Raad Rawi (Saudi Arabia) and Ferdy Roberts (UK, Houghton).
Joining them will be new cast members announced today Kristin Atherton (Germany), Karen Barredo (Off-Stage Cover), Jeffrey Chekai (Off-Stage Cover), Mark Hammersley (Off-Stage Cover), Moe Idris (Off-Stage Cover), Aïcha Kossoko (Tanzania), Sibylla Meienberg (Off-Stage Cover) and Duncan Wisbey (Fred Singer).
www.sohoplace.org
