Charlie Parker speaks with Caroline Steinbeis and Chelsea Walker, directors of The Contingency Plan, a climate change-themed double-bill heading to The Crucible this month.
Can you tell us about the plays themselves?
CS: Well, Steve [Waters] wrote these two pieces under the headline The Contingency Plan. The plays had been originally written and performed in London twelve years ago, and we’ve been working with him to update the scripts and reframe where we are in the face of enormous challenges with regard to climate change. Particularly with regards to a potential water level rise that might come about due to the heating of the atmosphere, meaning that the glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic are melting, so both plays come at that very big question in very personal ways.
CW: On The Beach is a family drama about a father and son glaciologist, who have both been studying ice melt on the West Antarctic ice sheets and its effect on sea level rise around the coast. Their family live on the coast of Norfolk, an area particularly affected by sea level rise. So that play is an intimate family drama about how sea level rise is going to affect individuals around the UK and, I suppose, how we start to understand and take in science around the climate crisis.
Geraldine Alexander (Jenny) and Joe Bannister (Will) in rehearsals for On The Beach. Photo by Chris Saunders.
Moving away from the personal, am I right in thinking that Resilience delves more into the political side of things?
CS: By comparison to On The Beach, Resilience is set in Westminster; and the same guy that we met in On The Beach, Will, is making his way into politics. He finds himself up against a bunch of ministers who have their own career paths and the security of their careers in mind; there is more to their interests than the safety of the British Isles. There’s this question: what do these figures actually mean? You’re talking about a few centimetres of sea level rise, but what happens if you start talking about five metres of sea level rise, or ten, or even sixty metres above sea level rise? This is foregrounded in Resilience. The play very much is asking: what action is being taken here? And is that enough to make a difference now? The interesting question is about this tipping point, and if we can avoid that from happening, which is very much central to both those plays.
The play very much is asking: what action is being taken here? And is that enough to make a difference now?
Was it hard not to be too political? Is it possible for a play to ever be too political?
CW: It is a great question. The plays are political. I think that’s a great thing. I don’t think plays can be too political; I think theatre is a political art form. But I think that it’s about how you invite an audience into that debate, rather than try and be didactic towards them. These plays are very critical but invite the audience into that rather than imposing politics.
CS: We’re having many discussions about how to get yourself into the mindset of somebody whom you ideologically disagree with. That can be complicated because sometimes members of parliament directly make choices or are responsible for a particular action that is very difficult to reconcile.
“These plays are very critical but invite the audience into that rather than imposing politics.” – Chelsea Walker (Director). Photo by Chris Saunders.
In recent months we’ve seen what is still ongoing in Pakistan, and sometimes it takes having to show the real-life images of a country underwater to really hit home. Are these pressing themes something you’ve been wanting to do for a while, or have you simply grown to them through working on The Contingency Plan?
CW: I think the climate crisis and how our governments are handling it is the most important issue facing the world. What excites me about Steve’s writing is that it embraces theatre as a political art form while allowing it to be entertaining, but also actively engaging in a political debate.
CS: It feels very positive to be able to make work, especially in theatre, that is not only going to engage with these questions but also really entertain people. I think an important thing to really stress is that these plays are so incredibly watchable and so incredibly funny. Steve Waters has an amazing way of making people lean forward and want to listen to the discussion.
The Contingency Plan features a double-bill of plays, Resilience (14 Oct – 5 Nov) and On The Beach (15 Oct – 5 Nov). Tickets for both performances are available online at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk.
