The Heretic

Synopsis

"I’m a scientist. I don’t "believe" in anything." The study of climate science is the cool degree at the university where Dr Diane Cassell is a lead academic in Earth Sciences. At odds with the orthodoxy over man-made climate change, she finds herself increasingly vilified and is forced to ask if the issue is political as well as personal. Could the belief in anthropogenic global warming be the most attractive religion of the 21st century?

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 11 February 2011

Suddenly, I feel a climate change coming on: The Heretic, Richard Bean’s entertaining new play, picks up on the dreadful slack left behind by Greenland at the National and delivers a very funny, topical new take on earth sciences, which have come into their own as a subject in universities after the blah-blah years of psychology and media studies.

The heretic in question is Juliet Stevenson’s self-contradictory, self-deprecating Dr Diane Cassell (“I’m a scientist. I don’t ‘believe’ in anything”), a paleogeophysics lecturer in a Yorkshire university who is challenging orthodox views in her field and undermining sponsorship.

She’s suspended, and then sacked, by her professorial head of faculty, Kevin Malone (anxiety-ridden James Fleet) - with whom she is vestigially in love after a long-ago one-night stand - in a hilarious scene featuring a pre-programmed human resources officer ([Lea...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 11 March 2011:

It may be a massive case of wishful thinking but I remain sceptical of the most apocalyptic climate change theories so The Heretic comes as a welcome counterbalance to the likes of Greenland and Earthquakes in London (even though the latter was my best play of 2010). There is also a delicious irony in casting Juliet Stevenson as the heretical university scientist given her past association with the discredited Wakefield campaign which did such damage to child immunisation uptake. The cast of six are all excellent, including two extremely impressive performances as a student and the daughter from Johnny Flynn and Lydia Wilson who, in looks and ability, increasingly resembles a younger sister of the wonderful Anna Madeley. The first half manages to communicate complicated meteorological theories whilst also being extremely funny and also shows how the scientific community turns on someone who dares challenge the accepted orthodoxy. After the interval Richard Bean literally loses the plot as he veers off on unresolved tangents which unfortunately lessens the overall impact. However the Royal Court deserves credit for staging a play which probably has the core audience choking on their muesli as well as with laughter. Given Nick Hytner's previous tie-ins with Bean it's a shame this wasn't staged in rep at the National as a rebuttal to Greenland....

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