Newark Advertiser review: Dawn King’s The Trials, performed at Nottingham Playhouse

With an incredibly talented young cast and a strong message, this is a show that is as thought provoking as it is shocking.

The Trials is now showing at Nottingham Playhouse and attempts to tackle one of the biggest existential threats we face today — climate change.

In the not too distant future the consequences of turning a blind eye to environmental decline has finally caught up with humanity.

The world is a hellish place to live — fires, floods, droughts and death are the new norm, entire countries are displaced and overburdened societies choke on air pollution.

In this dystopian future having a high carbon footprint can lead to a death sentence and the older generation is now on trial for decisions they made decades earlier — their fate to be decided by a jury of teenagers.

With the cast made up of young actors playing characters their own age, the show has the level of authenticity needed to tell a story that gives a voice to the youth.

The play also does an excellent job at showing that despite the responsibility that has been thrust upon them, these are just children with their own insecurities, interests and emotions. They should be focusing on growing up, playing, finding love, and enjoying life, not worrying about righting the wrongs of those that came before them.

This was an incredibly engaging, layered, and moving show, when it could have so easily fallen into the tired tropes.

We find ourselves asking, is this about justice or revenge? And it raises the very uncomfortable moral question of whether it is right to judge ordinary people for ruining the planet, when those in power today do the bare minimum to affect change.

The stage direction is well crafted, the use of lighting is superb, and fittingly for a drama about being eco-conscious, the production also reuses props from many previous shows to be performed at the Playhouse, including A Christmas Carol and The Children.

The show is a reminder of the very real threat that climate change presents us with and the consequences of doing nothing and carrying on as normal.

It is a call for action, because as writer Dawn King said ‘raising awareness is now no longer good enough’ and we need to demand real change.

To the environmentalists — and the climate deniers — this is a show well worth watching. One which encourages us to examine our own beliefs and demonstrates that the issue is not quite as black and white as we might think.

— FB