"Who will free us from the handsome British issue drama? Plays that float across the Atlantic on clouds of critical praise with sumptuous, starkly modern whizbang production design-lord how much funding you all have over us Americans-and which purport to tackle serious issues, but exhibit, once you scratch past the hard lighting and drum-forward soundscapes, a facile shallowness. Earlier this fall on Broadway, we had Will Graham's swing at masculinity in , and before that, his Rupert Murdoch in Ink;"
"That's how I felt watching Kyoto, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's two-and-a-half hour drama about the UN negotiations over climate change, sleekly directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. It worries so much about keeping you entertained it barely leaves a mark. From the moment you walk into the Mitzi E. Newhouse theater, an attendant hands you a lanyard as if you're a negotiator at a conference (I was Portugal; we specialize in tourism and lumber)."
Handsome British issue drama often substitutes spectacle for substantive engagement, deploying lavish design, intense lighting, and pounding sound to package topical themes. Examples include Will Graham's recent explorations of masculinity and Rupert Murdoch, Suzie Miller's Prima Facie, Peter Morgan's play about Putin, and Sam Mendes's expansive The Lehman Trilogy. Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's Kyoto stages UN climate negotiations with sleek direction, audience lanyards, projected imagery, and conference mimicry. Those theatrical choices emphasize entertainment and self-congratulation, using showmanship that dilutes thematic clarity and emotional resonance and leaves complex issues feeling flattened rather than freshly interrogated.
Read at Vulture
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