Kyoto

B+

Nine years ago, the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center housed an ambitious play about the behind-the-scenes machinations that resulted in the signing of the Oslo Accords. Now the Newhouse stage is home to another play about the preparations for and shenanigans during an important international conference, this time the one leading to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty that committed industrialized nations to reduce their carbon emissions. Playgoers who, like me, entered expecting something similar to the play Oslo will be quite surprised: Kyoto is far livelier, more involving, and, dare I say, funnier. Scenic designer Miriam Buether has  configured the center of the Newhouse stage as a large round conference table. Some seats at the table are occupied by lucky playgoers. Each audience member is given a delegate badge for one of the participating countries. I was the representative of Togo. The first act deals with the ten years of preparatory meetings that led to the Kyoto conference and the second act covers the conference itself. Playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson came up with the brilliant idea of choosing as their narrator and central character not some advocate of climate change but the man hired by Big Oil to undermine the work of the conference, Republican attorney and ex-government functionary Don Pearlman. For ten years, he uses his many skills to delay, dilute and deter any progress toward an agreement. Lucky for us, he is played by Stephen Kunken, a fine actor I have long wanted to see in a leading role. He does not disappoint; his energetic performance sets the tone for the entire production. Jorge Bosch and Ferdy Roberts are welcome holdovers from the West End staging. Amusingly, Daniel Jenkins and Dariush Kashani both appeared in Oslo at LCT. The large cast of 14 are all fine. I liked Natalie Gold as Pearlman’s long-suffering wife. Kate Burton, as the US delegate, doesn’t get much chance to show her strengths. With so many characters, the play doesn’t have time to give more than a rough sketch of most of them. Directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin keep things moving at a breakneck pace. Occasionally the shouting and gavel pounding became excessive for my taste. I thought the first act could use some judicious trimming while the second act could have been a bit longer to make developments clearer. All in all, I admired the play’s ambition and found it more entertaining than I expected. Running time: two hours 45 minutes including intermission. 

NOTE: At the performance I attended there was an audience member with an emotional support poodle in his lap sitting at the conference table. (See them at the right of the above photo.) At one point in the second act, Kunken as Pearlman explained some esoteric point and then turned toward the man and said “Confused?” After the man nodded his head in the affirmative, Kunken said “I was talking to the dog.”