Bishop Hill The Heretic
Jan 9, 2011 Climate: Sceptics Media The Guardian has an interesting article about two new shows about to open in London's West End.
The National Theatre's Greenland will attempt to give an overview of the dangers posed by climate change and will broadly support the idea, shared by the vast majority of scientists, that global warming is occurring because humans have been pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By contrast, The Heretic, at the Royal Court, will provide support for those who deny mankind is causing climate change.
The Heretic sounds quite interesting...
The play, by Richard Bean – whose work includes the National's English People Very Nice – is described as a black comedy by the Royal Court, though it refused to discuss the show with the Observer. "The Heretic obviously discusses global warming and climate change but it's much more of a discussion/debate as to what it means to be a scientist and the subject of empiricism," said a spokesman.
The show has a home page here, although I'm not sure they have quite the right visuals to go with it.
Reader Comments (17)
"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside!"
ELP were in the paranormal business. They knew what would happen in the climate debate 40 years into the future.
Welcome to Judith Curry
The musical!
Damn! You beat me to it, Chris - my thoughts almost exactly, except that I see it (from the brief synopsis on their website) more as satire than comedy.
Josh 65 makes a better visual!
I was thinking more along the lines of a Wagnerian Operas -- for example Der Ring des Nibelungen.. In particular, I think Walkürenritt could be used to great effect.
Though nothing can beat Josh 65, I beg to differ with our gracious host on the choice of graphic for The Heretic. Nothing summarises better the dishonesty and stupidity of the populist 'case for catastrophic climate change' as the photo of one polar bear stranded on a tiny bit of ice. It happens to the best of them - and they mostly survive, in fact the overall numbers are looking good. So it's the perfect illustration of dishonest, unscientific propaganda.
Sounds a great show so far.
Richard Drake
Nothing summarises better the dishonesty and stupidity of the populist 'case for catastrophic climate change' as the photo of one polar bear stranded on a tiny bit of ice.
Don't now about that -- it could backfire. For example I take THIS to indicate that the North Sea is freezing over and the damn things will be hunting us on Piccadilly Circus before long.
Point taken Don Pablo. I'd forgotten about the settled science of polar bear infestation of the English home counties, based on the cast-iron empirical evidence you've pointed to. Dunce's cap for me, once again.
But Don Pablo,
Those bears are not looking for humans to eat, thay are looking for humans to hug -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG7ueitiW-w
:)
A pity the actress in the Heretic also acted in play supporting Andrew Wakefield. Still, it's nice to see that the curtain is being lifted on climate scepticism. Persuade the luvvies and we're in darling!
DeNihilist
You made my day! Still rolling on the floor. I wonder what Sarah Palin would think?
"Those bears know how to have a good time."
No clever artistic subliminal messaging in the Guardian's review. Just a crude and very unsubtle verdict of guilt by association.
'The Heretic will focus on the work of a single, fictional scientist, Dr Diane Cassell, played by Juliet Stevenson, who finds herself at odds with her colleagues and is forced to ask if the issue is becoming political as well as personal.
The part will give Stevenson her second major role in a production that openly confronts scientific orthodoxy. In the 2003 TV play Hear the Silence she played a supporter of the disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield who claimed that MMR vaccines could be linked to autism and was later struck off. Shortly afterwards, she admitted the play influenced her to the extent that she refused to allow her son the vaccine, causing widespread criticism.'
A highly interesting post. It appears that The Heretic has a rare chance of actually saying something. Greenland, in contrast, will likely have nothing to say beyond, "me too!" Didactic works like the latter play are usually vapid, boring, and pointless, often leaving an intelligent audience with a subtle discontent, much like a bad egg roll.
The polar bear image is, of course, a fitting symbol for "Dr Diane Cassell," the lone voice of sanity in an ocean of political correctness. Did the author, Richard Bean, play to the strength of the theme and make a bold statement? Or did he wimp out and show a driveling "conversion" to the Warmist religion in the last act? Please attend and let me know.
@Pharos. The MMR case is an interesting one. It's used by some warmists to infer 'guilt by association' as you point out. But us sceptics could equally say that there are many parallels between the Wakefield 'MMR leads to autism' case and the warmist 'CO2 leads to CAGW' case. Both are largely based on a 'we can't think of anything else' hypothesis after all.
No easy sceptic / believer parallels to be drawn here, I feel.
That said, I can't be alone in frequenters of this blog in raising a sceptical eyebrow to any 'scientists say' story I hear/read. This has been a direct result of me looking further than MSM face value into the AGW issue. It's why I have a bee in my bonnet about the sainted Dr. Ben Goldacre. For the writer of 'Bad Science' to declare a clean bill of health to climastrology (see what I did there?) beggars belief. Back to (as Delingpole called it) bien-pensantery I fancy...
@DougieJ - agreed re. Goldacre, missing the elephant in the room. On a similar note I used to read the US magazine "Skeptical Inquirer" until it went all un-Skeptical about CAGW.
Knowing Richard Bean's work this play is very likely to be anti-orthodoxy, so I guess more pro sceptic. The image I can't make sense of, but there is no way a Richard Bean play would ever use a polar bear on an ice flo other than ironically. I'm going in February so I'll post on whether it's a cop out or not. TW