''The Contingency Plan'' is the overall title of a pair of plays by the British playwright

Steve Waters Steve Waters is a British playwright. He was born in Coventry, UK. He studied English at Oxford University, taught in secondary schools and was a graduate of David Edgar (playwright), David Edgar's MA in Playwriting in 1993, a course which he late ...

that opened at the

Bush Theatre The Bush Theatre is located in the Passmore Edwards Public Library, Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 as a showcase for the work of new writers. The Bush Theatre strives to create a spa ...

on 22 April 2009. The two full-length plays are ''On the Beach'' and ''Resilience''. They are both set in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in the near future. Both involve the same couple, Will Paxton and Sarika Chatterjee. Paxton is a scientist who has returned from research in Antarctica with a new understanding of glacial melting due to

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 the corresponding possibilities of a rise in sea levels and of

coastal flooding Coastal flooding normally occurs when dry and low-lying land is submerged by seawater. The range of a coastal flooding is a result of the elevation of floodwater that penetrates the inland which is controlled by the topography of the coastal land ...

. Michael Billington wrote of the pair of plays that their "flaws pale beside Waters' massive achievement which is to have made the most important issue of our times into engrossing theatre." In the original performances Will was played by

Geoffrey Streatfeild Geoffrey Streatfeild (born 1975) is an English actor in film, television, stage and radio. He is a member of the Streatfeild family. Career His notable film and TV roles include ''The Other Boleyn Girl'' and '' Kinky Boots''. He also appeare ...

and Sarika by Stephanie Street. ''On the Beach'', which takes its name from the 1974 song by Neil Young, mainly involves Will's relationship with his father Robin (played by

Robin Soans Robin Soans (born 20 June 1946) is a British actor, and a playwright specialising in verbatim and documentary plays. These plays include ''Across the Divide'' (2007); ''A State Affair'' (2000) which looked at life on a Bradford estate, produced ...

). Robin had unexpectedly retired from his own promising career as an Antarctic glaciologist shortly before Will's birth, and moved his family to an isolated house above a coastal

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

in Norfolk. Will has returned home to introduce Sarika to his parents, and to tell his father the painful news that he is leaving research to enter government service. In ''Resilience'', Will and Sarika (a career civil servant) are jockeying for influence in a new Tory government with Colin Jenks (played by Soans). Jenks is a former collaborator of Will's father who has become an important scientific advisor to Chris Casson, the Minister for Climate Change, and to Tessa Fortnum, the Minister for Resilience. The second acts of both plays occur on an evening when weather threatens massive coastal flooding. In the first play, Robin and his wife Jenny must decide whether to evacuate. In the second, the two Ministers are in conflict about whether to order mass evacuations, and are receiving conflicting advice from Will and Colin Jenks. ''The Contingency Plan'' was published in 2009. The book includes the credits for the original 2009 production. The play was shortlisted for the

John Whiting Award Between 1965 and 2010, the John Whiting Award (from 2007 renamed the Peter Wolff Trust Supports the John Whiting Award) was awarded annually to a British or Commonwealth playwright who, in the opinion of a consortium of UK theatres, showed a new ...

in 2010. Since the original production, staged readings of ''The Contingency Plan'' have been performed in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. An adaptation of the play was broadcast in the United Kingdom on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

in December, 2009. Waters' academic webpage.

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Further reading