Do you believe in Science?

Personally, I thought Al Gore had flogged the climate change donkey for all it was worth. Most people recycle now, protesters have found new things to riot over and we have a Liberal Democrat as Minister for Climate Change – the war seemed, to all intents and purposes, won. Was I wrong? Is climate change killing us? Will someone I’ve heard of ever play Metric? Will we ever find out? Personally, I don’t know but I’m sure the Rector has it all in hand.

One thing I can say with semi-certainty, is that green plays are the new black on the theatre scene. After several years of mulling over the issues during sweltering dog days and grindingly cold winters, the playwrights have put pen to paper and heralded the forecast for 2011.

The first among the new wave is The Heretic, a play very close to the interests of Imperial students. Not only is it showing at the ever-reliable Royal Court, barely a post-code away in Sloane Square, but it explores the story of an Earth Sciences Professor and her struggles in the face of a ruthlessly competitive scientific community, the courtship of corporate sponsors and an equally volatile, vulnerable family life at home. The key difference being that Dr. Diane Cassell is a climate change skeptic, swimming against the current, and confident in her views. (Check Monday’s Daily Felix for Greenland, the NT’s own stab at global warming on stage).

I’ll confess I was a little crushed upon realising it was set in Yorkshire – not as close to Prince Consort Road as I had at first hoped – but I was quickly assuaged by Juliet Stevenson’s authoritative performance as Diane Cassell, the robust, assured scientist, as her life begins to unravel after she receives death threats from militant eco-activist groups. Through exchanges with her anorexic daughter, her hapless boss and a bright yet emotionally delicate student, we see a woman defend her principles in the face of a world that disagrees with her, beyond even the scientific.

Richard Bean doesn’t seem afraid to poke a bit of fun at anyone in the name of humour – Muslims, media studies students, and James Lovelock beware

Richard Bean and Jeremy Herrin, as writer and director respectively, have crafted a very economical piece in The Heretic. Its efficiency with cast and set is worthy of commendation and the script metes out tight punches of well observed, sardonic comment that maintain the flow of the piece throughout. The script’s targets are wide and varied, Richard Bean doesn’t seem afraid to poke a bit of fun at anyone in the name of humour – Muslims, media studies students, and James Lovelock beware. The cast are arguably suited to their characters; James Fleet, famed for playing bozo Hugo in the Vicar of Dibley (a smash hit UK sitcom that defined a generation, for the international readers out there), brings the same disarming goofiness to Professor Maloney, the head of department, and Johnny Flynn carries the satire of the green-fiend student well, without ever pushing the character into the ridiculous.

Whilst it is centred on climate change, the play takes on more of the guise of a romantic comedy – not to give too much away – which makes Quentin Letts’ review tagline of “Hooray! This will make the right-on brigade hot and bothered” in the Daily Mail all the more distressing. The Heretic isn’t going to win round Al Gore, it wasn’t written to win round Al Gore. It is thought-provoking and heart-warming (what would a positive theatre review be without those two?) but is by no means scientific polemic and towards the end has touches of fairy tale that would dissatisfy the scientist in anyone. If you’re as of yet unconvinced, go simply for the Jeremy Paxman cameo. No joke.