Review | Kyoto' turns climate diplomacy into theater and too often, a lecture | amNewYork

"The new political drama from Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson (The Jungle), now at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse, dramatizes the decade of negotiations that led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocolthe first major global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Despite its grand scope and impressive pedigree, this Off-Broadway import from the Royal Shakespeare Company ultimately feels more didactic than dramatic. What should feel urgent and alive too often plays like a three-hour seminar."

"At its center is Don Pearlman (Stephen Kunken), a Washington lawyer-turned-lobbyist who inserts himself into U.N. negotiations on behalf of oil interests. Kunken, reprising the role he originated in the U.K., delivers a magnetic performancewitty, calculating, and darkly charismatic. Channeling a Brooks Brothers Richard III, he guides the audience through the bureaucratic maze, revealing how language, procedure, and ego can derail even the noblest intentions."

"Under the brisk, precision-tooled direction of Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, Kyoto transforms the Newhouse into a massive conference table, surrounding the audience with the action. Delegates spar over baselines and brackets while powerful lobbyists quietly work the margins. As political theater, the craftsmanship impresses; as storytelling, the results are mixed."

Kyoto stages the decade of diplomacy that produced the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, placing delegates and lobbyists around a conference-table set that encircles the audience. Direction emphasizes brisk, precise choreography and converts the Newhouse into an immersive negotiating room. The production excels in political-theater craft yet frequently reads as didactic and seminar-like rather than urgently dramatic. Stephen Kunken’s Don Pearlman, a lawyer-turned-lobbyist for oil interests, provides a magnetic, manipulative center. A varied international ensemble and Shirley Pearlman’s moral counterpoint add human depth amid procedural detail and diplomatic maneuvering.

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