Be informed

It is Valentine’s day 2025, and I look to offer my beloved a romantic evening. What better than to go to a West End theatre to see a romantic comedy with thousands of others desperate for love and romance. Our chosen performance was not a traditional romance; rather it was demanding, pertinent and funny. Yes, it was very funny. It was a romance between humanity and Earth.

Many of my readers know that I have been sceptical about theatre for many years until I realised there is theatre and then there is theatre. Last April we went to the National Theatre in London to see Nye. That is theatre. Now, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s presentation an unlikely play by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson who started writing together in 2011 when they met at university. Both are northerners, one indeed from my home town of Hull.

Those of us of a certain vintage remember Kyoto, though probably not the detail. It was the first UN treaty to tackle climate change. It was the product of COP3 and a process set in motion after the Earth Summit of 1992 (held in Rio de Janeiro). The story is told by one man who was there, Don Pearlman, played by Stephen Kunken. Pearlman, a child of Lithuanian parents who emigrated to the USA, was a lawyer working for the dark forces of the oil majors (the Seven Sisters). But his motivation were more than just money. He was a true patriot, defined by his origins and the opportunity afforded to him by the USA.

His job was to derail any attempt to set targets and timeframes for carbon reduction caused by burning fossil fuels. And he is good at it. His key adversary is the chair of COP3, the then Argentinian Ambassador to the UN, Raúl Estrada, played by Jorge Bosch. They have a number of head-to-heads. Pearlman thinks Estrada is a buffoon, but we know otherwise.

For two-and-a-half hours we watch the protagonists in this minimal theatre setting argue over words, commas and implications. We know the outcome, but the tortured process is worked supremely by this cast. Bearing in mind the origins of the playwrights, it is not surprising that they introduce the character of the former UK deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, played so well by Ferdy Roberts (right) capturing both voice and mannerisms to great comic effect. I am sure Prescott would have been flattered by this depiction. He sadly passed away very recently. The man was very much part of my early life as a constituent and a constituency party member. But I had never really thought that he may have some enabling wisdom to share with Estrada. Never give up until the compromise is reached.

In modern times I am not sure that there can be compromise, which is why this play seems now to be anachronistic. It came just at the right time with Al Gore as the US Vice President (contrast with yesterday’s seriously depressing speech to the Munich security conference by the current incumbent, JD Vance). We know that since Kyoto, step-by-step, the targets have been deepened and it is now actually possible to talk about phase-out of particular fossil fuels. We also know much better now that renewables can deliver energy security at a competitive price. We also know that those dark forces never gave up, bankrolling Pearlmans galore (a practice of lawyers, apparently) and, of course, politicians and their propaganda. Estrada showed us that we have to be better than those who value money over a livable planet. There is nothing more romantic than that.