Last Updated: April 7, 2019
Where are the climate change plays and who are the playwrights writing them? We are looking to create a comprehensive go-to list so anyone searching for material related to this issue can have this resource available. Below is what we have found so far. What else is out there?
Note: This list should by no means be considered an endorsement of the individual plays. It is simply a compilation. Also, in some cases, climate change is featured prominently while in others, it is only a backdrop for the story.
3rd Ring Out – Zoe Svendsen (UK) / immersive theatre
A Cool Dip in the Bare Saharan Crick – Kia Corthron (USA)
AD2050 – Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti (UK)
Arctic Oil – Clare Duffy (UK)
Arctic Requiem – Sharmon J. Hilfinger with music by Joan McMillen (USA)
As The Globe Warms – Heather Woodbury (USA)
As The World Tipped – Wired Aerial Theatre and Without Walls (UK) / aerial theatre
Baby – Doppelgangster (UK/Australia)
Baked Alaska – Riding Lights (UK)
Between Two Waves – Ian Meadows (Australia)
Buzz – Benjamin Kunkel (USA)
By The Water – Sharyn Rothstein (USA)
Carla and Lewis – Shonni Enelow (USA)
Clandestino – Mia Törnqvist (Sweden)
Colter’s Hell – Ross Peter Nelson (USA)
Cut The Sky – Marrukegu Theatre (Australia)/interdisciplinary
Disinformation Booth – Doppelgangster (UK/Australia)
Doppelgangster’s Titanic – Doppelgangster (UK/Australia)
Dry Time – Harry Newman (USA)
Dust and Water – Camille Hanson (Spain) / dance theater and audiovisual performance
Earthquakes in London –Mike Bartlett (UK)
Escaped Alone – Caryl Churchill (UK)
Estamos indo embora – Luiz Felipe Reis (Brazil)
Evangeline Drowning – Kurt Heinlein (USA)
Extreme Whether – Karen Malpede (USA)
Far Away – Caryl Churchill (UK)
Fire In The Garden – Ken Weitzman (USA)
Flooded – Julie Marie Myatt (USA)
Forward – Chantal Bilodeau (Canada/USA)
Galilee – Christine Evans (Australia/USA)
Global Ballgame – Margot Wood (South Africa) / family play
Global Warming – Charles Mee (USA)
Greenland – Nicolas Billon (Canada)
Greenland – Moira Buffini, Matt Charman, Penelope Skinner and Jack Thorne (UK)
Hearts of Palm – Patricia Milton (USA)
Hot Air – Mark Beeson and MED Theatre (UK) / immersive theatre
How to Build a Forest – Lisa D’Amour & Katie Pearl (USA) / part visual installation and part theatre performance
Human Animals – Stef Smith (UK)
Hurricane Diane – Madeleine George (USA)
I Dreamed the Last Diamond Darter – Lisa Schlesinger (USA)
If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet – Nick Payne (UK)
In the Wake of the Graybow Riots – Lisa Schlesinger (USA)
It Just Stopped – Stephen Sewell (Australia)
Jeune Terre – Gab Reisman (USA)
Kayak – Jordan Hall (Canada)
Kill Climate Deniers – David Finnigan (Australia)
Kitimat – Elaine Avila (Canada/USA)
LUNCH x 5 – Jack Gilhooley (USA)
Lungs – Duncan MacMillan (UK)
Miss Witherspoon – Christopher Durang (USA)
Moj of the Antarctic: An African Odyssey – Mojisola Adebayo and the Antarctic Collective (UK) / performance
Mr. Burns – Anne Washburn (USA)
New Atlantis – LAStheatre (UK) / immersive theatre
Oil – Ella Hickson (UK)
Oxygen Support – Doppelgangster (UK/Australia)
P.O. Box Unabomber – Zdrava Kamenova and Georgina Dimitrova (Bulgaria)
Planet Belfast – Rosemary Jenkinson (Ireland)
Prisoners of Hope – Allen Fitz-Gerald (USA)
Rapid Departure – Euan Martin, Dave Smith (Scotland) / immersive theatre
Reclamation – Ken Weitzman (USA)
Red Forest – Belarus Free Theatre (UK)
Sila – Chantal Bilodeau (Canada/USA)
Song of Extinction – E.M. Lewis (USA)
Storm – Theater Grottesco (USA)
Strawberry – Paula Cizmar (USA)
Take Me to the River – Constance Congdon (USA)
Thaw – Aaluk Edwardson (USA)
The Bird House – Diane Glancy (USA)
The Bones of Danny Winston and Rib Ann Magee – Lisa Schlesinger (USA)
The Breach – Catherine Filloux, Tarell McCraney & Joe Sutton (USA)
The Children – Lucy Kirkwood (UK)
The Chisera (Aka Lost Borders) – Paula Cizmar (USA)
The Climate Monologues – Sharon Abreu (USA)
The Contingency Plan – Steve Waters (UK)
The Day We Were Born – Jaisey Bates (USA)
The Edge – Transport Theatre Company (UK)
The Elephant Piece – Darryl Curry (USA)
The Ice Breaker – David Rambo (USA)
The Go Back Land – Lisa Schlesinger (USA)
The Heretic – Richard Bean (UK)
The Moons of Jupiter – Jessica Litwak (USA)
The Ocean at Your Door – Brian Otaño (USA)
The Planet Plays – Superhero Clubhouse (USA)
The Turquoise Elephant – Stephen Carleton (Australia)
The Way of Water – Caridad Svich (USA)
The Weather – Clare Pollard (UK)
The Weather Project – NACL Theatre (USA) / performance
They Saw A Thylacine – Human Animal Exchange (Australia)
This Clement World – Cynthia Hopkins (USA) / performance
Tinderbox – Lucy Kirkwood (UK)
Tomorrow Comes Today – Gordon Dahlquist (USA)
Tonight’s Fire – Alison Carey (USA)
Treefall – Henry Murray (USA)
Tsunami – Nilo Cruz and Michiko Kitayama Skinner (USA)
Two Degrees – Tira Palmquist (USA)
Ugly – Emma Adams (UK)
Unequilibrium – Blake Bishton (USA)
Wal-Martyrs – Lisa Schlesinger (USA)
Water – created by Filter Theatre & David Farr (UK)
Water Rites – Paula Cizmar (USA)
Whale Nation – Heathcote Williams (UK)
When January Feels Like Summer –Cori Thomas (USA)
When Something Wonderful Ends – Sherry Kramer (USA)
When the Rain Stops Falling – Andrew Bovell (Australia)
World Climate Change Conference – Rimini Protokoll (Germany) / immersive theatre
One-Acts
Flying Ace and the Storm of the Century – Jeremy Pickard, music by Jonathan Camuzeaux (USA)
Green Dating – Chantal Bilodeau (Canada/USA)
Libations – Paula Cizmar (USA)
Small Waisted – Janice Poon (Hong Kong)
The Propitious Moment – James Balestrieri (USA)
The Word for Snow – Don DeLillo (USA)
Whale Song – Chantal Bilodeau (USA)
Musicals/Opera
And While London Burns – music by Isa Suarez, libretto by John Jordan & James Marriott (UK) / opera
Anthropocene – Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh (Scotland) / opera
CO2 – music by Giorgio Battistelli, libretto by Ian Burton and Robert Carsen (Italy) / opera
Coal: The Musical – Nancy Vitale, Molly Sturges, Luis Guerra (USA)
Field Trip: A Climate Cabaret – Superhero Clubhouse (USA) / one-act
Firerock: The Musical – Georgina Escobar, Nancy Vitale, Acushla Bastible and Molly Sturgess
Hadestown – Anaïs Mitchell
Project Ahab – Gary Graves (USA)
Soon – Nick Blaemire, Matthew Gardiner (USA)
Sun & Sea (Marina) – Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė (Lithuania)
The Great Immensity – The Civilians (USA)
The Nature of Man – Mark A. Durstewitz, Christine Hull & Mario Renes (USA)
We Turned On the Light – Caryl Churchill (UK) /choral work
Puppets
30˚S. – Phantom Limb (USA)
Baby Universe – Wakka Wakka Productions (USA)
Dean Gibbons and the Knowledge of Death – Inconvenient Spoof (UK)
Dust – Sew Flunk Fury Wit (Denmark)
Falling Out – Phantom Limb (USA)
Memory Rings – Phantom Limb (USA)
Heatwave – Nutmeg Puppet Company (UK)
Solo Shows
2071 – Duncan MacMillan (UK)
Does This Apocalypse Make Me Look Fat? – Peterson Toscano (US)
Dr. Keeling’s Curve – George Shea (US)
Planet Hospice – Dan Kinch (USA)
Prelude to the Apocalypse (For What It’s Worth) – Blake Sugarman (US)
Sea Sick – Alanna Mitchell (Canada)
Ten Billion – Stephen Emmett (UK)
The Boycott – Kathryn Blume (USA)
Theatre For Young Audience
Arvaarluk: An Inuit Tale – Michael Kusugak (Canada)
Endangered! The Eco-Musical – book & lyrics by Keni Fine, music & orchestrations by Tony Small (USA) / musical
Evo-Cete: The Big Blue Journey – Jeremy Smith (USA) / theater and dance piece
Gabi Goes Green! – book & lyrics by Barry Wyner, music by Daniel Israel (USA) / musical
Island – Nicky Singer (UK)
Our Iceberg Is Melting – Bengalore Little Theatre (India) / musical
Plastic Drastic – Elena Araoz (USA)
Promise on Earth – Konflux Theatre in Education (UK)
Saving Persephone – Kathryn Blume (USA)
Sophie and the Adventures of Ice Island – Forrest Musselman (USA)
The Big Dry – ATYP and Ensemble Theatre (Australia)
The Last Polar Bears – adaptation by Joe Douglas (Scotland)
The Man from the Council – MOMO Theatre (UK)
Vit sand, vit snö (White Sand, White Snow) – Edward Buffalo Bromberg (USA/Sweden)
Wyoming Ice Age: Survival of the Mammoth – Jaime Cruz (USA)
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Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator whose work focuses on the intersection of science, policy, art, and climate change. She is the Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle – an organization created to support the writing, development and production of eight plays that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight countries of the Arctic – and the founder of the blog and international network Artists & Climate Change. She is a co-organizer of Climate Change Theatre Action, a worldwide series of readings and performances of short climate change plays presented in support of the United Nations COP meetings.