Kill Climate Deniers :
Four years after backlash shut down the original staging of the play, David Finnigan's Kill Climate Deniers has now opened in Sydney.
Playwright takes on Andrew Bolt, climate change sceptics and Breitbart News
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| AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION By Hannah Reich for The Hub on Stage |
In 2014, Finnigan was commissioned by Canberra's Aspen Island Theatre Company to write a play that explored climate change and Australian politics. He called the play Kill Climate Deniers, and was given a $19,000 grant from the ACT.... But then Andrew Bolt caught wind of it... Even right-wing US website Breitbart News Network criticised the funding of the play...
Finnigan said that despite the name, his play is not a violent call to arms but rather "a pretty joyful comedy".
"It's a high-octane action adventure thriller set in Parliament House," he said.
The Parliament House of Finnigan's play, however, has been invaded by eco-terrorists. They've taken everyone hostage while demanding that the government stop climate change.
Finnigan, who based his 2012 Churchill Fellowship on studying the intersection between science and the performing arts, creates theatre in collaboration with climate and systems scientists.
Scientists were informally involved in the development of this play ensuring that "all the science was double and triple fact-checked," he said...
Finnigan has released Kill Climate Deniers as an eBook, film script, walking tour of Parliament house dance party and album ...
A uniquely Australian train-smash
Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company's production of Kill Climate Deniers is the first full-scale mounting of the play, which won the company's Griffin Award in 2017. While in 2014 Finnigan was concerned with the new anti-terrorism laws which included an offence of "advocating terrorism", he's less afraid now.
"I don't think anyone is going to take this play literally," he said.
The artistic director of Griffin Theatre Company, Lee Lewis, directed this staging of Kill Climate Deniers, which she described as having "a uniquely Australian train-smash structure"...
Kill Climate Deniers is showing at Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company until April 7.
