With a strong solo performance by Paul Ready, who also wrote it, this play has genuine complexity. It’s about a deep friendship, one party saddened by climate change, the other not a denier but determined to get on with his life. The relationship is sensitively drawn, as the childhood emotional bond is stretched by increasing tensions in adulthood. It’s also about guilt, or guilt denied, about failing a friend and about climate complacency. There’s also more than a nod to philosophical discussion of human exceptionalism and the reality of ‘progress’; but it’s not intrusive. Richard, the troubled idealist, is sometimes too close to a stereotype, more so than his complacent everyman friend. A fine play that could be developed further.

Traverse Theatre, until 30 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Alan Cranston]