About the work
“Kyoto” is a political play by the British writers Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson about the negotiations that led to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Royal Shakespeare Company and Good Chance premiered it on 18 June 2024 at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. The German translation is by John Birke.
Plot
The narrator is Don Pearlman, an American lawyer and lobbyist working for the oil industry, who in the 1990s uses legal manoeuvres and targeted disinformation to try to prevent a binding climate agreement. The play follows the climate conference in Kyoto into the decisive overnight session in which the Argentine chairman Raúl Estrada-Oyuela pushes the delegations towards a deal. Alongside Pearlman, real figures such as Al Gore and Angela Merkel appear, as well as delegations from countries including China, Saudi Arabia and Kiribati.
Cultural significance
The play turns a diplomatic struggle over deadlines and percentages into a political thriller narrated by the agreement’s opponent. After Stratford it ran in London’s West End (@sohoplace) and at Lincoln Center in New York in 2025, where it was nominated among others for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.