Sunday
Feb202011
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill More heresy
Feb 20, 2011 Climate: MWP Media Just back from London, where I got a chance to go and see Richard Bean's The Heretic. Thanks to everyone who helped this to happen.
It is astonishing how much science has been stuffed into the show, which is a brilliant comedy in its own right. It's an extraordinary achievement. And how about this for a quote:
KEVIN: Do these tree ring guys make a habit of pasting in the instrument record on the end of a proxy series?
DIANE: You're not seriously telling me that you did not know that Professor?
KEVIN: No! Fucking no! They can't do that! That's like a vegetarian getting his blood sugar up with a bacon sandwich. Why don't I know this?
Buy the script here.
Reader Comments (22)
I knew the Joshes can pick em.
Contrast the rival
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=415182
Your script link goes somewhere strange...
Fr@k me!
His Grace actually used a swear word in a post without any censorship or modification. That's gotta be a first.
Don't do this at home, boys!
The Amazon link isn't quite right, takes you to the associates sign in page rather than the product with your associate code embedded.
Here is the link to the script.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heretic-Richard-Bean/dp/1849431205
There is a bit of swearing in the play but it feels right.
Bish, the page you've linked to for the script is only accessible to Amazon affiliates. You need to find an external link to the script that carries your affiliate ID.
The Bish goes to the Smoke and starts swearing. Och I dinnae ken fit the world's coming tae :-)
The Ascent of Man, Part 7 The Majestic Clockwork is mostly about Newton. The presenter, Jacob Bronowski, has some very interesting things to say about those times.
This particular episode also features a segment from a stage play of the era that has lots of scientific jargon and pokes fun at the major scientific figures of its time.
Watch the video linked above from approx 23.00 mins onwards. It has uncanny similarities with today's events.
If history isn't repeating itself, then it's deja vu all over again.
Yes, there is a lot of swearing in the show, but I think it was probably necessary.
From the linked Times Higher Education review:
"...I suspect that the project hit trouble from the moment Hytner agreed that a multi-author collective could write the play, and was then doomed when the writers' passion blinded them to their absolute obligation to keep us entertained...."
But the authors had a CONSENSUS!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ym1bj/Michael_Balls_Sunday_Brunch_20_02_2011/
If you follow my link above you will be taken to Sundays Radio 2 Program with Michael Ball. Start listening at 1 hr 19 minutes where the one of the stars of the play Michael Fleet is interviewed and all parties try and play down the thrust of the play. Hilarious!
That's what Delingpole told Paul Nurse.
From the same Times Higher Education, here is another quote:
"I attended the platform discussion the night after I saw the play and was curious to see whether the playwrights had any idea of the sheer size of the turkey they had produced. So far as I could see, they were still so high on the joy of its conception and delivery that they seemed to be unaware. Perhaps it was just as well."
The author isn't talking about the Heretic, BTW, but about its stage rival, Greenland.
It's getting brilliant reviews - as well as the Mail, Telegraph and The Stage - the Independent gave it 5 stars and even the Graun critic praised it through gritted teeth.
Funniest of all, though was this desparately bitchy review from "Business Green"
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/review/2025743/heretic-exercise-climate-sceptic-propaganda
The only response to which is , in the immortal words of Corporal Jones............"They Don't Like it Up 'em".
Just listened - amazing piece of satire in itself.
"Well Juliet's a member of Greenpeace and Richard cycles everywhere..."
It's probably funny enough to put into the play.
I saw it yesterday. It's extremely well acted and produced, and the main character presents skeptics' viewpoints and motivations well. The script does indeed stuff a lot of science into the show - to the point it made me wonder, how much of that is going to be actually understood by those who haven't been following those issues? Does everyone know what the IPCC is, or tree rings (or at least what they supposedly have to do with global warming)?
The one thing I didn't like was the way it ended - but no spoilers.
Overall I'd definitely recommend it.
Well, I hope it comes to Australia, too. If it does, I'll see a stage-play for the second time in... er, I think, ten or twelve years. That's too bad for a chap whose ex-girlfriend became a playwright over the same period. Strange, but true. There is something quite claustrophobic about stage-plays. But the Heretic sounds like something that can engage the mind and help me forget that it is all happening in a box.
You know what is unique about these plays, both skeptics and believers in the consensus climate science might see both. Perhaps this will get people cast the caricatures they have of one another and start some direct discussion as opposed to talking past one another.
Indiana Bones in search of the Bark of the covenant. Boldly going here...
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/
O/T
Does anyone else remember this pseud--scientific scare from 20-odd years ago?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/8323784/The-end-of-BSE.html#
Wonder when we'll read the same story about the little-noticed death of CAGW? 3 or 4 more bitter winters ought to do it.
When is Sacha Baron Cohen going to mess up with climate science, Borat or Bruno like?