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Southwark Playhouse Young Ensemble, London
August 28-30
Running time: 90 minutes
Writer: Dawn King
Director: Vicky Moran
Cast: Kacey Ainsworth, Nina Amos, Nancy Crane, Evie Desheva, Rachel Greenwood, Harry Japes, Emma Judge, Rowan Miller, Scarlett Molyneux, Hywel Simons, Syam Stewart, Anne-Elizabeth Sowah, Josie Surminski, Thea Walcott McKay, Dominique Vincent
The Nuremberg Trials were considered fair, one of the jurors says during deliberations that are seeking climate justice – or is it revenge? – in a future not too distant from our already overheated times.
The provocative comparison is as close as this latest piece of environmental theatre gets to being about anything beyond a climate crisis that, by the time of the play, means flights are all but forbidden, no one has seen snow and the air is so polluted, the windows should be permanently shut.
If it misses the potential for deeper resonance with all the other pursuits of historical justice, it makes up for it with the felicity of its mostly youthful casting.
The Trials_Rehearsal_SWP_280825_27 Photographer credit is David Jensen.
Directed by Vicky Moran, the actors of Southwark Playhouse’s Young Ensemble naturally create the volatile dynamic of young people, combining earnestness, edginess, aggression and insecurity. What they lack in experience, they make up for with angry conviction. The prospect of being judged by them would be terrifying even without the 15-minute time limit they have been given to weigh up the evidence that ratchets up the tension.
The Trials_Rehearsal_SWP_280825_1 Photographer credit is David Jensen.
Their anger is directed at the older generation, in the dock for intensive emissions of carbon dioxide, a crime punishable by death.
The Trials_Rehearsal_SWP_280825_26 Photographer credit is David Jensen.
The defendants are played by seasoned actors, including, in another instance of cunning casting, Nancy Crane. In “The Trials”, Crane is a former executive of an oil company. Earlier this year, she appeared in “Kyoto” at London’s @sohoplace as the U.S. negotiator, weakening, at the behest of the oil lobby, the U.N.’s first agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Crane’s character in “The Trials” in ennobled by her unflinching acknowledgement of the wrongness of her past.
Without giving a major plot twist away – though anyone who saw the Donmar Warehouse’s 2022 production already knows it – Ren, the jury’s forewoman, played by a resolute Emma Judge, is at least her match in steeliness.
She knows what is right and lives by it in a brave production whose narrow focus is the point when the world outside is still mostly intent on looking in the opposition direction.
The Trials.
Southwark Playhouse Young Ensemble, London
August 28-30
Running time: 90 minutes
Writer: Dawn King
Director: Vicky Moran
Cast: Kacey Ainsworth, Nina Amos, Nancy Crane, Evie Desheva, Rachel Greenwood, Harry Japes, Emma Judge, Rowan Miller, Scarlett Molyneux, Hywel Simons, Syam Stewart, Anne-Elizabeth Sowah, Josie Surminski, Thea Walcott McKay, Dominique Vincent
The Nuremberg Trials were considered fair, one of the jurors says during deliberations that are seeking climate justice – or is it revenge? – in a future not too distant from our already overheated times.
The provocative comparison is as close as this latest piece of environmental theatre gets to being about anything beyond a climate crisis that, by the time of the play, means flights are all but forbidden, no one has seen snow and the air is so polluted, the windows should be permanently shut.
If it misses the potential for deeper resonance with all the other pursuits of historical justice, it makes up for it with the felicity of its mostly youthful casting.
Photographer credit is David Jensen.
Directed by Vicky Moran, the actors of Southwark Playhouse’s Young Ensemble naturally create the volatile dynamic of young people, combining earnestness, edginess, aggression and insecurity. What they lack in experience, they make up for with angry conviction. The prospect of being judged by them would be terrifying even without the 15-minute time limit they have been given to weigh up the evidence that ratchets up the tension.
Photographer credit is David Jensen.
Their anger is directed at the older generation, in the dock for intensive emissions of carbon dioxide, a crime punishable by death.
Photographer credit is David Jensen.
The defendants are played by seasoned actors, including, in another instance of cunning casting, Nancy Crane. In “The Trials”, Crane is a former executive of an oil company. Earlier this year, she appeared in “Kyoto” at London’s @sohoplace as the U.S. negotiator, weakening, at the behest of the oil lobby, the U.N.’s first agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Crane’s character in “The Trials” in ennobled by her unflinching acknowledgement of the wrongness of her past.
Without giving a major plot twist away – though anyone who saw the Donmar Warehouse’s 2022 production already knows it – Ren, the jury’s forewoman, played by a resolute Emma Judge, is at least her match in steeliness.
She knows what is right and lives by it in a brave production whose narrow focus is the point when the world outside is still mostly intent on looking in the opposition direction.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2025 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre