20. The Heretic - Royal Court Downstairs

My second climate change play of the month and though I still think I’ll give Greenland a miss (promises of impressive polar bears and all) – I really enjoyed this one too. Given that comparisons are going to be somewhat inevitable between the two, I might as well get it out of the way here and admit that if I were forced to choose between the two, that Water had the edge for me – it’s hard to resist the eclectic inventiveness of Filter.

Really though what struck me about the two was how they both take a similar approach to the climate change issue – they’re both looking at it from a personal perspective – they’re making it about how it impacts people and relationships. Though the palette that Filter use is larger. Here we see Dr. Diane Cassel and her relationships with her colleagues, students and daughter and how they are affected by her unusual views on climate change. One of the strengths of the piece is the portrayal of these relationships, firstly because it led to some very dialogue and secondly because all the performances were excellent. Though, of course, Juliet Stevenson rightly steals the show - I was very impressed with both of the young actors. I really loved Lydia Wilson in Blasted at the Lyric last year (though I didn't much like anything else about the production) and thought she was just as excellent in this and I felt that Johnny Flynn did a great job of making a character who could have been intensely frustrating very likable. However, the relationships didn't emotionally grip me in the way that the ones in Water did and overall I didn't find it as satisfying.

The place where The Heretic did come out the better was with the science, which it managed to make very engaging. There is a valuable message I think in the idea that we should be allowed to question issues like climate change and I found the discussions of the use of data and hiding and manipulating information some of the most interesting in the play. It’s somewhat a shame therefore that this strand gets somewhat forgotten in the exploration of the relationships. By the final scene it’s not even really mentioned which makes it far too easy to imply that Cassel's life is simply far better if she stops worrying about climate change, stops questioning it – which I really don’t think is the message that Bean was trying to put across. It would, in fact, be a far better play if this final scene was dropped all together – as it is at best an unnecessary attempt to give us an oddly neat and happy ending and at worst detracts from everything that has gone before whilst being misogynistic, simple and unrealistic.

Otherwise it's difficult to think what else to say, the set did what it needed to but didn't make much impression otherwise (though I did like seeing the sky moving in the skylights). It was a good, enjoyable production but not overly daring and hasn't particularly stuck in my mind - which certainly wasn't true of the second of my Royal Court productions of the week.