The Contingency Plan - Resilience/On the Beach

Our Review:

8 May 2009

Two very good full length plays for the price of one on the subject of climate change and the apocalyptic vision of Britain submerged in floods and floating to oblivion … Heaven knows, the world must come to an end somehow, but I barely thought I’d be having nightmares on the subject after an afternoon and evening at the Bush.

Steve Waters is best known for Fast Labour at Hampstead and World Music at the Donmar, but in embracing epic themes so confidently he makes a huge leap forward, combining the forensic intelligence of David Edgar with the gift for dramatically sustained argument of David Hare.

In On the Beach, Will Paxton (Geoffrey Streatfeild, the RSC’s Henry V last year), a young glaciologist, returns home to Norfolk, where his father Robin (Robin Soans), a former glaciologist in the Antarctic, is concentrating on the local birdlife while storm clouds gather on the horizon.

Old Robin, like most of us, is c...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 4 June 2009:

On The Beach is even better than Resilience (review below). There's still a touch too much implausibility, but seen alongside the other play there's a satisfying roundedness to the story, both political and personal. The first half of this play is a prequel to Resilience and the second half runs concurrently with the second half of the other play. At first I thought I'd seen them the wrong way round (Resilience first) but at the end I was glad I saw that first - though I'm not sure it matters that much! A fine achievement for The Bush....

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