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 ...

, 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 West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

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

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

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, sometimes referred to as the Hamburg Schauspielhaus or Hamburg Theatre, is a theatre in the St. Georg, Hamburg, St. Georg quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany History The Deutsches Schauspielhaus was co-foun ...

'' 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 350.org is an international environmental organization addressing the climate crisis. Its stated goal is to end the use of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy by building a global, grassroots movement. The 350 in the name stands fo ...

Reviews

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

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 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