Kyoto

Kyoto

by Joe Murphy & Joe Robertson
Originally co-produced at Royal Shakespeare Company with Good Chance 
June 18, 2024 - July 13, 2024


Synopsis:  ‘This isn’t negotiation, it’s hand to hand combat.’

11 December 1997.

The Kyoto Conference Centre. 5am.

The nations of the world are in deadlock. 11 hours have passed since the UN’s landmark climate conference should have ended. Time is running out. And agreement feels a world away…

The greatest obstacle: American oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman.

Tensions are high and the stakes are even higher in Kyoto - a sharp, searing and darkly comic story about a moment when the nations of the world took a first, monumental step towards each other.


Artistic Statement: The RSC is passionate about new writing that views the world through a Shakespearean lens.

In partnership with Good Chance, we are tremendously proud to have staged the world premiere of Kyoto, a sharply resonant and vital play, which explores the phenomenon of agreement during a pivotal moment in the history of the climate change negotiations.

Kyoto debuted in our Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in June 2024, continuing the theatre’s legacy as a leading space for bold new work by emerging and established playwrights.

-- Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey

Creative team:

Playwrights: Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson

Directors: Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin

Set Designer: Miriam Buether

Costume Designer: Natalie Pryce

Lighting Designer: Aideen Malone

Sound Designer: Christopher Reid

Video Designer: Akhila Krishnan

Composer: Paul Englishby

Associate Director: Jane Moriarty

Dramaturg: Gemma Stockwood

Casting Director: Julia Horan CDG

Dialect Coach: Zabarjad Salam (Budgie)

Associate Video Designer and Programmer: Iain Syme

Assistant Designer: Hannah Ursula Schmidt

Trainee Director: Thomas Tegento

Cast:

TANZANIA / MWANDOSYA: JUDE AKUWUDIKE

JENNA AUGEN: SHIRLEY

SECRETARIAT: OLIVIA BARROWCLOUGH

RAUL ESTRADA-OYUELA: JORGE BOSCH

USA: NANCY CRANE

FRED SINGER: VINCENT FRANKLIN

AOSIS / KIRIBATI: ANDREA GATCHALIAN

JAPAN / OHKI: TOGO IGAWA

DON PEARLMAN: STEPHEN KUNKEN

CHINA / ZHONG: KWONG LOKE

GERMANY /MERKEL: INGRID OLIVER

BOLIN /SANTER /AL GORE: DALE RAPLEY

SAUDI ARABIA / AL SABBAN: RAAD RAWI

UK / PRESCOTT / HOUGHTON: FERDY ROBERTS