Making a scene out of the climate crisis

David Finnegan has found a way to combine science and the arts to help researchers engage better with stakeholders and also create compelling drama.

His latest play, Scenes from a Climate Era, performed at the Playground Theatre in London in October, portrayed the conversations that unfold between ordinary people about the realities of climate change, moving backwards and forwards in time and across the world. 

The play features four actors switching between multiple characters ranging from activists, scientists, politicians, bankers and clubbers, and foretells climate catastrophes ranging from the extinction of coral reefs and extreme weather to civil unrest. 

Interactive

Humour and horror are used to equal effect, leaving audiences to wonder how they would react in such circumstances.

Finnegan has been writing about climate change for nearly two decades. Originally from Australia, he grew up around climate scientists, and when he started making theatre with friends in the early 2000s, it was a natural step to collaborate with researchers in earth science subjects.

His other hat – as a freelance consultant creating games and scenarios for clients including government departments, campaign organisations, the World Bank and the United Nations – grew out of this work.

The scientists he met were creating ‘participatory co-models’ – predictive models used to engage communities and stakeholders and help them negotiate complex issues such as changes to farmland or a river valley.

He realised these were similar to interactive theatre and game design, and started to develop ways of making these much more sophisticated, using his experience in theatre. 

Inspired

“It’s a really useful way to get a group of people up to speed on an issue quickly, without a lot of complicated data and graphs and presentations,” he says. For example, a current project is working with the World Bank in Nepal on climate and disaster risk with local government agencies. 

“This is a way to get everyone up to speed about the issues around post-disaster reconstruction. It gives people a chance to experiment with ideas and negotiate with one another,” he says. 

In turn, experiences in this work have inspired some of the scenes in his plays, for example, younger bankers leaking information to activist groups about significant meetings so that they could time actions with these features in Scenes from a Climate Era.

“There’s a few examples like that of these fascinating climate conversations that have been happening in the past few years that I was just really struck by, and wanted to put on stage,” he says. 

Non-didactic 

Over the years, Finnegan has let go of his initial ambition of using art to change people’s minds about an issue and motivate them to take action.