The play ''2071'' is a "dramatised lecture" written by

Chris Rapley Christopher Graham Rapley (born 8 April 1947) is a British scientist and scientific administrator. He is Professor of Climate Science at University College London, a member of the Academia Europaea, Chair of the European Science Foundation's E ...

, a climate scientist, and playwright Duncan MacMillan. It was first performed in 2014 at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

Plot

The play is in Rapley's voice and was first performed by him in 2014 at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

, London. The piece is partially a memoir of Rapley's life and career and partially an explanation of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and of the controversies surrounding it. The title, ''2071'', is the year in which Rapley's oldest grandchild will be 67 years old, which was Rapley's age when he first performed it in 2014.

Production

The original production was directed by Katie Mitchell; designer Chloe Lamford’s incorporated "swirling video images behind him that illustrate Rapley’s arguments and have a strange beauty of their own". The videos were done by Luke Halls, and Paul Clark composed music for the production. The production was done jointly with the ''

Deutsches Schauspielhaus The Deutsches Schauspielhaus is a theatre in the St. Georg quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It was established in 1901 by the renowned stage actress Franziska Ellmenreich. Theatre managers Notable actors Marco Albrecht, Ingrid ...

'' in Hamburg, Germany. In December, 2014, it was presented there in English with German subtitles added. A short-run production was mounted in August 2019 at the Episcopal Actors Guild in New York, with actor Robert Meksin as Rapley, directed by Carin Zakes, to benefit 350.org.

Reviews

Reviewing the play, Michael Billington, theatre critic for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' since 1971, wrote "if we look to theatre to increase our awareness of the human condition, the evening succeeds on all counts". Some reviewers were less enthusiastic, with Aleks Sierz writing, "Why is the Royal Court hosting such devised work, and not commissioning playwrights to create new metaphor-rich plays about this subject?"

Publication

In 2015, the script of the play was published in England with the title ''2071: The World We’ll Leave Our Grandchildren'', and a translation into German, ''2° Grad'', was published in Germany.

Plot

Production

Reviews

Publication

References

Further reading