Given the huge interest in global warming, it's surprising more theatre companies haven't tackled the subject. Step forward Filter, whose three-hander looks at our inability to work together to solve global problems through the metaphor of modern relationships.
Claudia is a Government high-flyer intent on lobbying the G8 for a reduction in carbon emissions. Her two-year relationship with cave-diver Joe has just ended because of her work commitments; unfortunately she has just discovered she is pregnant. Woven into this is the story of a recently deceased scientist, who first warned against climate change in 1981 and whose reclusive son (played by Ferdy Roberts) is meeting his half-brother for the first time at the funeral.
This is all good stuff but the material isn't pushed far enough: the crucial political dimension is virtually lost amid an insistence on anchoring the story in the personal. This means the central notion - that our atomised emotional state is an illuminating prism through which to question our ability to work strategically on the climate - simply doesn't hold, er, water.
Moreover, Filter has eschewed the thrilling theatrical language it pioneered with first show Faster, where physicality and the integrated use of music complemented the subject matter.
Director David Farr's well-acted but uninspired production, augmented by Tim Phillips's pulsing electronic soundtrack, looks like an early Complicite show - in other words, we've seen all this before.
Water
Lyric Hammersmith
Lyric Square, King Street, W6 0QL
