2071

We were expecting a good ‘talking to’, a resume of the facts of climate change, and how the year 2071 was going to be The Big One. Only 54 years to go! Lawks, we huddled together in the Everest Theatre and prepared for the worst.

Instead, here was the excellent John Gaden in the role of Professor Chris Rapley delivering a 72-minute lecture on the subject, carefully tiptoeing through a maze of detail. Ever alert to the dangers of overstating his case, the Professor couched his words carefully. 

At no time was the photograph on the programme cover referred to. Here a young boy sits in a parched landscape musing on the dreaded figures: 2071. This was to be an altogether more gentle occasion.

Gaden and six young actors from the ATYP were soon drenched in media artwork by Joe Crossley, some of it excellent — the Earth floats in outer space, and icebergs break free from their millennia-long imprisonment. The choreographed movement of the youngsters about the stage was most often lost. Not expected to learn the Professor’s lecture, Gaden happily resorted to his own downstage monitor. 

A lifetime’s work in the South Pole proved Professor Rapley’s worth. The books of his youth showed the area to be ‘unknown’: now he recalls his excitement at breathing the air trapped in a segment of the centuries-old ice core.

As the show ended in a snowstorm of facts and graphics a solo voice called out from the audience. ‘Stop Adani!’ shouted one brave student from nearby Sydney University. The Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate that wants to dig six open-cut and five underground coalmines in Queensland.

Stop Adani? Here at last is a cause worth following.

Frank Hatherley