At the end of 2019, in the English countryside, Australian playwright David Finnigan began writing a play about the six turning points that have brought us to this moment in time—our ecosystems transformed, our planet on the brink of unthinkable climate disaster. But then Finnigan's hometown of Canberra was hit by bushfires. As an area the size of England burned and one billion animals perished, he started to receive texts from loved ones racing to evacuate amid the devastation.
In a performance that interweaves 75,000 years of humanity with the incredibly personal account of his best friend’s escape, Finnigan calls on scientific research, phone footage, and a very personal story to illuminate the transforming planet and how we’ve arrived here. An extraordinary ride through human history, DEEP HISTORY is shot through with humor and glowing with hope.
Early in David Finnigan’s autobiographical narrative Deep History, he recalls how his career path diverged from his family's: Finnigan's father is a climate scientist, and their shared care for the environment propelled Finnigan to make theatre about environmentalism. He says, “Art can change people’s minds in a way that science sometimes can’t.” A viable claim and certainly a noble pursuit. But Deep History is closer to a TED Talk than theatrical art.
Running parallel to Finnigan’s explication of thousands of years of human history is a moment-by-moment account of out-of-control fires in 2019 surrounding his hometown of Canberra that threatened his best friend and his family. This didn’t really achieve the tension and suspense that it was clearly meant to inject into “Deep History.” But it did not need to; members of the audience already have tension aplenty from the current news reports full of climate emergencies.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
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