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A curious one this...a high profile play about climate change denial. There is a major problem with how the proponents and arguments are framed. The play shows: Skeptic arguments are suppressed by the mainstream science establishment and media The denier is portrayed as having the integrity and balance in the ensemble and free rein to promote very poor science. And the main arguments are seen to be held by eco-radicals of the most extreme variety.She is receiving death threats from some outfit called the Sacred Earth Militia and all the other activists have extreme if not murderous intents. So, in the interests of portraying a certain dramatic bent, there are major distortions of reality- not the reality of climate change (we can allow the space for drama to explore that however it chooses) but the reality of the players in the debate. Climate change deniers are rarely, in my experience, women of integrity- they are almost always men seeking attention. They are usually not abused by their scientific colleagues but treated with courteous respect even when they grossly distort or undermine their work. And, to the best of my knowledge no climate change denier in the UK has ever received death threats (unlike the many issues to real climate scientists)..indeed there is no record of a radical environmental organisation ever issuing death threats on any issue. Now, again is it fair enough that there is an antidote to Greenland at the National (by all accounts pretty awful) and It is entirely legitimate for any playwright or artists to explore sceptical themes. But I doubt very much that a playwright in the archliberal Royal Court would give such generous license to a character who denied the Holocaust or argued extreme right conspiracy theory as fighters for truth being brutally attacked by a conspiracy of conformists and political extremists or allow such free and uncritical promotion of their arguments. My worry is that this kind of thing creates a dangerously ambiguous relativism –that even if there is a problem but it is all being pumped up by extremists and what we need is a bit of sanity and hear all points of view. The Royal Court will not influence or reach many people, but this does sound like a highly entertaining play which may develop legs and make it to tv or film...and, maybe more dangerously, it establishes an attitude among writers that maybe the best stories lie with the deniers not the accepters- and that the Devil does have the best tunes after all. This review from variety http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117944603 The Heretic (Royal Court Theater, London; 386 seats; £28 ($45) top) By David Benedict <http://www.variety.com/biography/3058> 'The Heretic' Juliet Stevenson is a skeptical science university professor in Richard Bean’s “The Heretic.” A Royal Court Theater presentation of a play in two acts by Richard Bean. Directed by Jeremy Herrin. Dr. Diane Cassell - Juliet Stevenson Ben Shotter - Johnny Flynn Phoebe - Lydia Wilson Professor Kevin Maloney - James Fleet Geoff Tordoff - Adrian Hood Catherine Tickell - Leah Whitaker Is Richard Bean's "The Heretic" a wake-up call about the unquestioning orthodoxy surrounding climate change? Definitely. Is it about the dangers of academia bowing to outside sponsors? Unquestionably. Is it also a one-liner-strewn comedy? Certainly. Is it a country-house thriller? That too. And a double-barreled romantic comedy? Indeed. Might all these ingredients make for a less than satisfying meal? 'Fraid so. "I'm a scientist. I don't 'believe' in anything." Dr. Diane Cassell (Juliet Stevenson) is a university lecturer in earth sciences, with the emphasis on the latter of those two words. A professional sceptic, her interrogations of lazily doom-laden, climate-change thinking have put her increasingly at odds with both students and her department. Having agreed with her professor and one-time lover (nicely shamboling James Fleet) to hold off from publishing her unorthodox research in order to comply with the views held by a major new sponsorship organization, she then reneges on her promise. In the first of several plot contrivances, audiences are asked to believe that this sharply witty, highly experienced academic is naive enough to be outraged that this causes problems. After subsequently airing further unorthodox views on BBC television -- a very funny filmed segment -- she is then suspended in a scene smartly satirizing the absurdities of human resources people at their over-solicitous, officious best. But in the second half, the play abruptly changes gears. Diane is now holed up at her virtually snowbound home in the middle of nowhere with her furiously anorexic daughter and we're suddenly in a family psychodrama. But, unbeknownst to them, the university security man, revealed to the audience as a dangerous green activist, is hiding upstairs with her kitchen knives. And then zealously green, very smart, self-harming student Ben (Johnny Flynn) turns up because he fancies her daughter and has hacked into rival university computer data that may disprove accepted theories of climate change. So the relevance of scientific ethics are discussed -- at length. And someone sings a love song. And someone has a heart attack. Bean undeniably has fun creating unexpected characters and reversing audience expectations. Someone enters wearing black setting up the idea of a funeral that turns out to be a wedding, But that again indicates a fondness for a laugh at the cost of character truth. And for every very funny gag, there are rapid second-rate Neil Simon exchanges in which the laugh only comes because of a tiresome set-up line. Helmer Jeremy Herrin goes for broke, lending gravitas wherever possible but never at the expense of comic pace. To underpin Bean's overly ambitious tonal range, he encourages immense detail from his actors, especially Johnny Flynn and Lydia Wilson as two late-adolescents utterly convinced of their opinions yet frighteningly fragile. Stevenson barks out snappy retorts, But she does overdo solo distress at the expense of engaging warmth and comedy. Even Herrin cannot solve the structural faults. Having been taken down the route of a play about the politics of the environment, it's hard not to feeling misled when matters you've been asked to care about are so easily junked in favor of sentimental comic choices. George Marshall, Director of Projects, Climate Outreach Information Network [log in to unmask] Direct Telephone (Wales) 01686 411 080 Mobile 0781 724 1889 Skype: climategeorge Main COIN Office 01865 403 334 www.coinet.org.uk The Climate Outreach and Information Network is a charitable trust formed in 2004 to directly engage the public about climate change, COIN inspires lasting changes in attitudes and behaviours through the use of innovative action learning methods and by assisting people to communicate their own messages to their peers. Charity registration number 1123315