Contemporary theatre is increasingly immersed in the issue of climate change. From Extinction Rebellion’s performance protests and outdoor stagings of the Earth Ensemble playwrights’ work, through to the Old Vic’s 2019 production of Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs and the Donmar Warehouse’s new production of Steve Waters’s The Contingency Plan, theatre’s engagement with climate change stretches from fringe to mainstream, from civic disobedience to West End institution.

This one-day symposium at the University of Oxford explores how contemporary theatre is engaging with climate change, featuring a roundtable discussion by Earth Ensemble playwrights April de Angelis, Rebecca Boey and John Farndon, alongside performances of their recent works.