Edinburgh Fringe 2025
The Beautiful Future Is Coming
Traverse Theatre
Genre: Theatre
Venue: Traverse Theatre
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Two hundred and fifty years of real and imagined history told through the stories of three couples, past, present and future of climate catastrophe.
Review
Flora Wilson Brown’s urgent and excellent play tackles the subject of climate change with a theatrical swagger that shifts through three time zones, but in which the dialogue and situations are focussed, urgent and amusing. In 1856, Eunice wonders if her research into CO2 is telling her something is going wrong. As a woman, she is either ignored or treated as a hobbyist. In 2027, Claire falls in love with Dan, just as a heatwave breaks and the floods begin, with tragic consequences. In 2100 Svalbard, Anna and Malcolm carry out their meticulous research as an 86-day storm rages, and Anna hopes her baby doesn’t arrive before they are rescued. The connections between the three zones are carefully revealed, some anticipated, and some are surprising and shocking revelations.
The cast play the show with emotional resonance that shifts as the environments shift. In 1856, Phoebe Thomas convincingly plays Eunice’s frustration at not being taken seriously, seemingly having the full support of her husband John, (excellent Matt Whitchurch), until he too sees her as a hobbyist doing good work, but nothing that can be taken too seriously. (It’s a lovely twist that she speaks on the site that will become Central Park, the lungs of New York.) The central story is the beautiful love of Dan and Claire, Michael Salami and Nina Singh portraying their tender awkwardness as they move from colleagues to lovers, handling the change of tone superbly as Dan’s mum dies in the floods, and their relationship buckles under his grief. In the future zone, much comedy is derived from James Bradwell’s socially awkward and clumsy Malcolm, entombed in the research centre with practical, pregnant, scared Ana, Rosie Dwyer in fine form.
One of the many pleasures in the script and production is the changes of tone, and, even though the end of the world is being faced, there is hope within the outcomes. Pregnancy features, the connections between the women become clearer, and it is they who conclude the play, strength and unity; all are mothers and connecting with Mother Earth. However, and this is the reason for my Highly Recommended rating, the play does not preach, but presents everything, actual or imagined, as fact, making us aware of the choices we have.
