Raf and Harry have well-paid jobs, a lovely semi in leafy Barnes and a brand new second residence in the heart of Wiltshire. In the neighbouring field, Claudia and Peter have a chewed up vegetable patch, a carbon-neutral yurt complex and an absolute conviction that the apocalypse is imminent.
Raf and Harry invite Claudia and Peter over for an apology meal after a misguided midnight call of nature in the field. Pleasantries however soon switch to politics and the pulled pork is replaced by pulling punches once they discover just how much they disagree over. Except the flatbreads that is. Everyone does agree they really are delicious. As the hosts test the commune members' commitment to their cause, the night descends into all-out anarchy... and the consequences prove to be apocalyptic.
In an uncertain age where the threat of global disaster continues to linger, 'Catastrophists' is a darkly comic play all about class, cooking and communes - and whether any of us are quite as civilised as we like to think we are.
Catastrophists is a comic exploration of the sense of uncertainty at the heart of contemporary British society. In an age where previous political, social and economic assumptions have been eroded and global catastrophe continually seems a button push away, Stanley looks at how far people might go to break free from their socially assigned roles and embrace new ideas... even if that does mean joining an apocalypse preparation cult.
Jack Stanley is currently a member of Soho Theatre Writers' Lab and has previously been on the New Writing South / Chichester Festival Theatre Young Playwrights programme.
Credits include:
Modern Living (HighTide Academy, HighTide Festival 2016/INK Festival 2017); Waste (Little Pieces of Gold's New Writing Night, Southwark Playhouse); The Sale Starts at 9am (PlayPod, Chichester Festival Theatre); Laying Tracks (Grin Theatre Young Playwrights, 2014); Comic material written for BBC Radio 4 Extra's Newsjack.
CameRon Cook is a graduate of RADA and Birkbeck, and was previously a member of the highly acclaimed Oxford Revue.
Credits include:
A Sense of Humours, writer and director (White Bear Theatre, London 2016); Dahling You Were Marvellous, director (BT Studio, Oxford 2014); Dealer's Choice, director (BT Studio, Oxford 2013); The Oxford Revue: Prattle Royale, writer and performer (Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh 2012).
8th - 26th August 2017
WHITE BEAR THEATRE
138 Kennington Park Rd, SE11 4DJ
Press night
Thursday 10th August
Tues - Sat 7:00pm
Sun matinees 4pm
Tickets
£15 (£12 concessions)
Box Office
http://whitebeartheatre.co.uk/play/catastrophists/#/all
Videos