The Heretic

by Richard Bean

Auckland Theatre Company

Maidment Theatre

Until August 10

We don’t get many politically incorrect plays but playwright Richard Bean (One Man. Two Guvnors), who admits to being something of a climate change sceptic, takes pot shots at the debate with The Heretic.

It’s a play which mocks both the climate change deniers and the liars, scientists who know how to work the system and scientists who abuse it.

It is a riotous roller coaster of laughs deploying cynicism, scorn and humour on one of the world's more serious issues.

Dr Diane Cassell, a “gas-guzzling planet racist”, is a major research science in the earth sciences department of an English university. Her research – measuring the sea levels on the Maldives, which are purported to be sinking – shows that it is not the case.

With her findings at odds with her university and one of the department’s major funders she is warned not to submit her paper on the controversial issue.

She does and she is fired by her boss, Prof Kevin Maloney, who is a friend and a lover from many years ago. He may also be the father of her anorexic daughter Phoebe (it is never stated, but one never knows with scientists).

Cassell is being hounded by the Sacred Earth Militia and is subjected to death threats, and worse than that has an encounter with someone from the university's HR department.

Phoebe is a passionate eco warrior and intellectual snob as she has never been to university. So she knows more than her mother.

She falls for one of her mother's students, a passionate cyclist advocate who hates his father because he owns a Volvo (which doesn’t even run on LPG).

While the main focus of the play is the debate on climate change there are other related themes which revolve around the way in which we deal with some of the problems around workplace transparency, child rearing and personal relationships.

Great one-liners

The play is packed with great one-liners and smart interchanges which were a feature of Bean's One Man. Two Guvnors and his previous life as a stand-up comedian.

Jess Holly Bates as Phoebe, the petulant, anorexic, daughter, gives a well-controlled performance, capturing the tedious, uncontrollable, haranguing tantrums of a teenage daughter.

Jordan Mooney as Ben Shorter the crusading cyclist convincingly portrays a bright young student struggling to comprehend the conflicting demands of the world, his tutor and libido.

As Kevin Maloney, Stelios Yiakmis presents a credible worried HOD with too many conflicting demands on him, his face and body displaying the internal angst.

Andrew Grainger as Geoff the university head of security presents a clever mixture of bureaucratically “facilitating excellence”, officious bumbling and an edgy hidden dimension.

Jennifer Ward-Lealand is splendid. On stage virtually the whole time, she slowly modulates her character, drawing out different facets. At one stage, exhausted and defiant, she engages with the HOD and HR advisor using a stuffed toy as her support person in a superbly acted display of belligerency.

Central to the play is the exploration of the way that language is used politically, scientifically, philosophically and personally.

Out of this comes some brilliant sequences where the babble of scientific chatter is sliced through with clear common-sense observations, like “This planet cannot sustain increasing population” – a position which no politicians, religious leaders or Greenpeace will sign up to.

There is also a little rant about the changing fashions of university education as it has moved from psychology, sociology, media studies and now earth sciences have become king of the ivory towers. There is also a nice Catch 22 rumination on verbal warnings in the workplace which are not able to be recorded as such as that would make them written warnings.

John Verryt’s sets, particularly the open-plan university setting with dramatic light boxes as a background, are effective and complement the refined and intelligent directing of Alison Quigan.