A field maple tree has been installed in Bristol Old Vic’s stunning foyer to mark the arrival of The Beautiful Future Is Coming, which explores climate change over a 244 year period of our past and future.
Three stories are told during the show, written by Flora Wilson Brown and directed by Bristol Old Vic’s artistic director Nancy Medina.
We journey to New York in 1856 where Eunice has discovered the greenhouse effect but is ignored by the science world’s patriarchal attitudes, to London in 2027 where Claire and Dan are experiencing a heatwave and flooded streets and to Svalbard, Norway in 2100 where Ana and Malcolm are locked in a research laboratory waiting for an 86-day storm to pass.
The three narratives across two centuries are cleverly interweaved with the common themes of climate change and anxieties around parenthood. The action switches between each point in history using the highly effective set design by Aldo Vázquez and Elena Peña’s sound.
All six actors (James Bradwell as Malcolm, Rosie Dwyer as Ana, Michael Salami as Dan, Nina Singh as Claire, Phoebe Thomas as Eunice and Matt Whitchurch as John) are superb, but special mention goes to Michael Salami whose portrayal of grief due to the loss of a loved one is brilliant.
The complexity of the storytelling led to a few moments of confusion, but the 90-minute show is fantastic overall. They might be different points in time but each story represents a stark warning about planet Earth if we don’t take action to secure the beautiful future we long for.
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The Beautiful Future Is Coming is at Bristol Old Vic until 7 June.
Images by Ellie Kurttz
