Nicely staged but completely incoherent. I do believe in climate change but felt insulted by the lack of balance - cap and trade and a carbon tax were just dismissed. This was like being hit over the head with 'The Guardian' for two hours. - addicted to theatre
10 Feb 11
Despite having a fine director in Bijan Sheibani (whose Our Class was so memorable), who has at his disposal all the resources of the National, both artistic and technical, Greenland is still an incoherent mess, because the writing is so awful. It has neither plot nor action and lacks any meaningful drama. It is also incredibly boring; it takes rather more than a pantomime polar bear and a supermarket trolley suspended over the stage to keep an audience engaged for over two hours, without an interval. It is ironic that a play which is doubtless intended as a wake-up call to warn us of the huge threat to mankind if we do not do something to control climate change should be so soporific. I suspect that the main reason why on the night I went (the opening night, by which time there had been ample opportunity to iron out any initial teething problems) most people remained in their seats until the end despite the awfulness of the play was because there is no interval (and my goodness didn't two hours feel a long time) and the design of the Lyttleton inhibits premature exit. The lesson which I hope the National will learn from this fiasco is that great (or even good) plays are not written by committee. - KC
05 Feb 11
Well done NT - you've managed to stage a show that is even duller than Danton's Death - jt
03 Feb 11
Okay, I'll admit there were points in Greenland when it became a little too earnest and, dare I say it, tedious. But there was also much to recommend I think.
The performances were uniformly excellent, and some of the staging was spectacular. Perhaps some of it was TOO spectacular though; if the play had had more depth and character development (as opposed to just being morally 'right' -- and sometimes 'right-on'), would there have been such a need for spectacle? Having said that, I would have been loath to miss the polar bear! [I wonder if he'll be dyed and used in a future production of Winter's Tale?]
As for the 'message', there were times when it felt a little laboured,
After all the unfriendly reviews, I had feared that I would hate the whole thing, but I was pleasantly surprised that it held my attention and kept me amused and entertained for most of the time. It could have been tighter; I would have liked it more if it had been 15-30 minutes shorter I think! - LDE
03 Feb 11
When you’re passionate about a subject, you can become evangelical to ‘spread the word’ and have the opposite effect i.e. put people off rather than turn them on. Such is Greenland, a play about climate change (with a dreadfully corny title) at the NT. A cross between Enron and one of those verbatim plays like The Power of Yes in the same theatre, but nowhere near as effective as either.
Before it starts, there’s a man with a microphone at a round table in the foyer trying very hard to generate a debate amongst a crowd who look as if they regret that the rather good Colombian band have stopped playing. As you leave he’s still there, now getting even less interest form an audience badly in need of a pee and a glass of house red; embarrassing. There are four playwrights and a dramaturg credited. There are four narrative threads woven together (one from each writer?). Only one really comes to life. There’s the rather patronising one about the ambitions of a black London youth who goes on Deal or No Deal, another about a young girl’s journey as an eco activist, a third about a Cambridge geography student who becomes an ornathologist, and the one that works about the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. There are other seeming pointless bits about disagreements between some neighbours and a completely unnecessary love affair. It’s 120 uninterrupted minutes (I think they might have dropped the interval during previews for obvious reasons!). Director Bijan Sheibani and designer Bunny Christie have thrown the kitchen sink at it (in an attempt to bring it to life?). There’s an airline staff dance routine and numerical back projections which owe a lot to Enron (in which the dramaturg was involved!), and an ending straight out of Slava’s Snowshow (though they’re probably all too young to remember this). There’s a curtain of rain at the front of the stage, girls flying in supermarket trolleys and descending on ropes, flashing lights, loud music and crash bang wallops. Even if they do recycle the vast quantities of paper used, there’s something distasteful about its use…….and they have class acts like Amanda Lawrence and Lyndsey Marshall in the cast. I didn’t learn much; I would have got more googling ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ for a couple of hours. As it’s at the NT, I suspect they are preaching to the converted like me. Any sceptics in the audience who stayed for the duration are unlikely to be turned and may well have been hardened by the relentless earnestness of it all. Despite the box of tricks, it was actually dull. - Gareth James
03 Feb 11
OMFG.
Bad National Theatre. Naughty National Theatre. GET ON YOUR BED!!!!!
If we stop this show by not buying tickets and the theatre goes dark, Carbon emmissions at the NT will decrease by 3%. - Cassox
02 Feb 11
The issue is whether the 'Greenland' is the issue on playgoers want on stage. Many won't, including the axe-grinding rds who has commented on your piece, Michael. Fine, let's air our views and differences, even if we do plead ignorance of our collective and scientifically-proven guilt.
It's too easy to criticise this production, ignoring the immense challenge of dramatising so complex a subject. High marks to the National on several fronts for this bold, ambitiuos attempt for its mainstream auditorium. May it reach many parts, beating up and ruffling a few brace of feathers. - Sunshine and showers
02 Feb 11
Tedious and hectoring (an appropriate enough adjective when Priam figures in the text). The gist of the "play" is climate change, as brought about by man's misuse of planet Earth, is an irrefutable fact and anyone who dares gainsay it is an heretic. There were the token objectors in the play, but they were quickly and crudely dispatched by the hectoring high priests of the new religion. Now, I certainly don't know if the product of man's activity on this planet is really causing global warming and to the degree the doomsayers say it is - to threaten our very existence, but what I do know is that anyone who dares challenge this dogma is treated as an heretic and condemned. How can science possibly establish the truth in this atmosphere of fear? Galileo was put under house arrest by the Vatican because he challenged the orthodoxy of the day - don't let us repeat the mistakes of the past as we grapple with the issues of today. The evening was relieved only by the inclusion of paper snow, an amazingly life like polar bear, and real rain! - it all helped to relieve the tedium of this overlong homily to climate change. - rds
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