After watching Brad Sutherland’s Just Stop Extinction Rebellion and spending some time trying to nail down an explanation for what this bemusing play is really about, I found a line in the programme that led me to my answer: ‘Just Stop Extinction Rebellion is a romantic comedy about finding hope when facing extinction’, writes Caitlin Odell.
Despite the play’s entire narrative hinging on a group of people whose lives have intersected due to meeting at a climate activist group, the climate crisis is not meaningfully engaged with in this play. The fears and anxieties caused by the prospect of looming apocalyptic events do, however, provide a nice metaphor for what seems to be the real issue at hand: two middle aged people’s desperate search for personal survival, having been stripped of their respective marital roles.
We meet Ben (James Price) and Millicent (Louise Bangay) as they are first meeting one another, attending a climate activist group fresh off the back of marital separation. Neither seem truly distressed about the state of the planet, both disclosing early on that their interest in the group is more motivated by a desire to recoup some self-esteem, or a quest for personal development – something Millicent has jotted down on her post-break up bucket list.
This is the first instance of many where Sutherland ridicules the middle and upper classes for their eagerness to attach themselves to moral causes without integrity. It feels a fair jab to make in many ways; Millicent using her newfound passion for environmentalism as an excuse to avenge longstanding grudges towards her former friends by egging their Bentleys and BMWs, being a particularly funny scene that satirises the hypocrisy of it all. But this slightly loses its impact as it begins to transpire that all five members of the activist group, regardless of their age, class or ethnicity are being mocked in some way, seemingly to pose doubt on the sincerity of anyone who belongs to a climate activist group.
Despite Sutherland’s cynical (albeit amusing at times) depiction of this chosen demographic, I did enjoy watching the dynamic between Millicent and Ben in their budding romance. Louise Bangay was particularly convincing in her middle-aged vulnerability, in a way that almost endears you to her fickle attempts at anchoring herself to something meaningful.
White Bear Theatre, 138 Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4DJ until 10th February. Times: Tues- Sat 7.30pm. Admission: £17, £12.
Booking: www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk
