THE CONTINGENCY PLAN Double Bill Plays 4/22-6/6 At The Bush Theater

THE CONTINGENCY PLAN by Steve Waters is a double bill of two new plays (ON THE BEACH and RESILIENCE) which tackle the immediate issues of climate change. Each play stands alone, but together they present a picture of England in which severe flooding continues to destroy the South West and the shrinking of the polar ice cap threatens to sink the East Coast.

Please note: this is a double bill and there will be a press afternoon and evening on Thursday 7 May at 4pm and 7.30pm

ON THE BEACH. Will Paxton returns from an Antarctic survey to visit his parents on the Norfolk coast. His father is a retired glaciologist and radical thinker. Will's decision to take a job with a government department enrages his father and brings the family to breaking point. Will's mother Jenny struggles to keep the peace but a much more immediate threat faces the couple. When the floods come, will they leave their home and the landscape they love for higher ground?

RESILIENCE. A Tory government has just come to power and wants radical answers to the imminent floods. Two new ministers, a true-blue Tory and a member of the Notting Hill set, try to outmanoeuvre and undermine each other. When Sarika Chatterjee, the chief Civil Servant brings maverick glaciologist Will Paxton into the meeting, he puts an extreme scenario on the table: England, from its coastline to its capital, faces catastrophe.

Steve Waters' other plays include Fast Labour, Plague of People, English Journeys and After the Gods (Hampstead Theatre), Habitats (Gate / Tron Glasgow), The Unthinkable (Sheffield Theatres), World Music (Donmar Warehouse), and Out of Your Knowledge (Eastern Anglian Tour.) Television and radio credits include Safe House, The Family Project and The Moderniser.

ON THE BEACH is directed by Michael Longhurst and RESILIENCE is directed by Tamara Harvey, with design by Tom Scutt, lighting by Oliver Fenwick and sound by Emma Laxton. The full cast is, David Bark-Jones, Susan Brown, Robin Soans, Stephanie Street and Geoffrey Streatfeild.

THE CONTINGENCY PLAN
by Steve Waters
22 April - 6 June

http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/