Power play: political thriller about climate change pushes sixth-formers towards personal action
Ten sixth-formers headed to the West End to see a dark comedy set at the time of the UN’s landmark climate conference at which the Kyoto Protocol was adopted.
They returned to the School full of praise for what they had watched, with several declaring themselves more motivated to play their own part in combatting climate change.
Accompanied by Deputy Head (Academic) and Geography teacher Anne Macdonald, they went to see Kyoto at @sohoplace – a theatre opened in 2022 as part of the Crossrail project.
Written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, the play is set in the Kyoto Conference Centre on 11th December 1997, with the world’s nations in deadlock, 11 hours past the time when the conference should have ended. With time running out and an agreement still seeming a remote prospect, the greatest obstacle is Washington lawyer and oil lobbyist, Don Pearlman.
Produced and acted by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Good Chance, the play was performed to great acclaim at the Swan Theatre last year before moving to @sohoplace in 2025.
It is not the first encounter by QE pupils with the work of Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson: the pair’s earlier play, The Jungle, which is about the unofficial camp for migrants and refugees in Calais, was the School Play in 2023.
Afterwards, Mrs Macdonald gathered the reflections of nine of the boys on the play.
Year 12
Simi Bloom: “Seeing Kyoto was a fantastic experience; watching a comic yet thought-provoking political thriller was a first for me but it did not disappoint. Every actor was extremely compelling – in particular, the delegate for Kiribati [actor Andrea Gatchalian] gave a sensational performance – and the ending has given me a lot of thought as to how I can do my part…[on] climate change.”
Felix Calder: “The performance was absolutely stellar. This play really helped me understand why diplomacy is fundamentally such a nightmare, and gave me a much broader understanding of the climate crisis. I’d love to see something like this performed at QE.”
Shailen Patel: “An amazing performance that was engaging and thrilling throughout. I left with a new hope and sense of urgency to make change on the world around us.”
Riyan Siyani: “The play was really good at highlighting just how much chaos and disruption the major oil companies caused in the progression of the world’s journey to a sustainable future, all for the purpose of increasing their own profits.”
Year 13
Andreas Angelopoulos: “Seeing the tension between economic interests and environmental responsibility portrayed so powerfully made me reflect on my future career path and how I can contribute to a more sustainable world.”
Ken Kajar: “The actors did an excellent job capturing the tensions between nations, highlighting why progress felt so slow. The endless bureaucracy engineered by the Seven Sisters [seven large oil companies] was a stark reminder of the power large corporations play through lobbying, and yet despite this, I felt moved by the performance to do more to reduce my carbon footprint.”
Saim Khan: “Whether it was the charming, suave demeanour of COP* Chairman Raul Estrada or the hard-headed and self-assured diplomacy of [former UK Deputy Prime Minister] John Prescott, the negotiations were brought to life in a truly spectacular way.”
Nikhil Mark: “The play was intensely interesting, full of humour but more importantly revelations about the true world of superpower negotiation and ugly truth about the response of the world to the growing climate crisis. I especially enjoyed its informative value and the crude but hilarious comments from Don Pearlman, a staunch climate change denier.”
Chanakya Seetharam: “I found the selection of Don Pearlman to be the most ingenious feature of the play. Pearlman’s mordant and deeply cynical narration offered a terrifying picture of the slow pace and frequent ineffectiveness of international climate negotiations. Particularly terrifying was his reminder at the end of the play that anyone who had driven a car or taken a flight had ‘paid [his] wages’. After a play which had largely highlighted the shortcomings of the international system, I think this ending, with its recognition of our collective complicity, was deeply important. I found Kyoto a brilliant piece of theatre and one which left me with all sorts of questions.”
*Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.