http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/jan/09/climate-change-plays-london-stage

Two leading London theatres tackle the controversial subject of climate change in plays opening next month. The works will be the first about global warming staged by major companies in the UK.

However, the respective treatments of the subject will be very different.
The National Theatre's Greenland will attempt to give an overview of the dangers posed by climate change and will broadly support the idea, shared by the vast majority of scientists, that global warming is occurring because humans have been pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By contrast, The Heretic, at the Royal Court, will provide support for those who deny mankind is causing climate change.
Ben Power, the National's artistic director in charge of Greenland, said: "We allow climate change deniers to have a say but, in the end, the high level of consistency displayed by scientists about the dangers we face meant we take the view there is a problem being caused by ourselves. We are trying to be hopeful in the play. On the other hand, it is clear we have to face up to the fact that our world is going to get 3C or 4C hotter by the end of the century, thanks to our own activities."
The Heretic will focus on the work of a single, fictional scientist, Dr Diane Cassell, played by Juliet Stevenson, who finds herself at odds with her colleagues and is forced to ask if the issue is becoming political as well as personal.
The part will give Stevenson her second major role in a production that openly confronts scientific orthodoxy. In the 2003 TV play Hear the Silence she played a supporter of the disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield who claimed that MMR vaccines could be linked to autism and was later struck off. Shortly afterwards, she admitted the play influenced her to the extent that she refused to allow her son the vaccine, causing widespread criticism.
The play, by Richard Bean – whose work includes the National's English People Very Nice – is described as a black comedy by the Royal Court, though it refused to discuss the show with the Observer. "The Heretic obviously discusses global warming and climate change but it's much more of a discussion/debate as to what it means to be a scientist and the subject of empiricism," said a spokesman.
"It isn't a 'climate change play' as such, but uses it to discuss wider questions, so we'd prefer not to discuss it."
For its part, the National has been open about its own, unusual approach. Greenland is the work of four playwrights – Moira Buffini, Matt Charman, Penelope Skinner and Jack Thorne – who each explore different themes concerned with global warming. The aim is to create an ensemble piece like David Hare's 2009 show about the financial meltdown, The Power of Yes.
"We have interviewed scientists, sceptics, protesters, businessmen, and a host of other people caught up in this issue," said Power, who is condensing the work of the four writers. "We have enough material for a five-hour play but will boil it down to around 90 to 120 minutes. The aim is to illuminate, not wag fingers." The National has also organised talks by climate change denier Nigel Lawson, the climate scientist John Shepherd, the former chief government science adviser Sir David King and the environmental scepticBjørnLomborg.
The fringe theatre has had a shot at dramatising climate change with works at the Arcola and the Bush in London. But mainstream theatre has been reluctant to exploit its dramatic potential. The nearest the National has previously come to the subject was last year when it staged Earthquakes in London, by Mike Bartlett. That play explored the lives of three sisters whose climate scientist father, played by Bill Paterson, announces that the planet faces imminent catastrophe.
Films on the subject include the polemics The Age of Stupid, starring Pete Postlethwaite, and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, while literary explorations include The Rapture by Liz Jensen and Ultimatum by Matthew Glass. "We want to start a conversation," added Power. "We are going to be even-handed but we have to talk about what is happening to our world."
Greenland opens at the NT's Lyttelton theatre on 1 February and The Heretic opens at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 10 February.