On an ice shelf made of Styrofoam , decorated with snow made of plastic, an eco-thriller is being shot in the New Mexico desert. That’s both the setup for Bess Wohl’s “Continuity” and a sample of the paradoxes it keeps trying to wind into a play.

But “Continuity,” a Manhattan Theater Club production that opened on Tuesday night, never convincingly weds its airy approach to its heavy subject, which is nothing less than the fate of the earth as global warming reaches a tipping point.

The approach, on the other hand, is almost whimsical , as if Ms. Wohl were setting a trap whose bait is comedy. Subtitled “A Play in Six Takes,” “Continuity” trades mostly in the mild humor of Hollywood cliché.

Only some of the clichés are deliberate. The crucial scene we see being shot over and over involves a high-stakes confrontation between Eve, the movie’s heroine, and George, a buff eco-terrorist who happens to be her ex.