Scenes From the Climate Era: climate conversations take centre stage

Posted on 27 May, 2025

Sixty-five short scenes, ranging from comic to tragic, and everything in between. It’s a conversation on climate unlike anything you’ve heard before.

Coming to The Q –  Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre this winter, the Belvoir St Theatre Production Scenes from the Climate Era will be hitting the stage to bring an illuminating, shocking, wry, and ultimately inspiring piece of theatre in the form of what might just be the world’s biggest – and most important – story.

Written by climate scientist and playwright David Finnigan, Scenes from the Climate Era explores climate change through 65 scenes spanning the 1980s to 2040, all touching on climate issues.

And as the planet gets warmer and the future seems dangerously uncertain, after watching the 80-minute production, it will be hard to disagree that its messages are powerful and timely.

Using human stories to spark conversations about the current state and future of our world – while also providing hope – actor Meg Hyeronimus says that what drew her to the script was its rawness and truth.

“It’s posing that we are in a climate era, rather than it being a climate crisis, or there’s climate change,” she explains.

“It’s really broad conversations [about climate issues] but made specific in each scene between scientists and journalists and experts on climate change but then also between friends and partners, mum and daughters and families.”

“You get a picture of a whole range of perspectives and different communities and that drew me to it…It’s heavy, but it’s very human and it poses a lot of questions and maybe not a whole lot of answers, which I really liked.”

Following a cycle of denial, solutions, despair, and hope, the scenes (which tell the same story but have been cut down to 23 for the performance at The Q), shows the cycle people experience when going through climate anxiety.

Jumping from comedy to tragedy and back again, Meg says that there’s not a typical story arc in the play, but all of the scenes are interconnected and educational without “being preachy”.

“David Finnegan is a wonderful writer…it’s just really human. There’s a lot of heart to it. There’s a lot of science and facts. But he kind of pokes fun at the way that we as audiences hear statistics or numbers and find it really disengaging,” she explains.

“There’s so many different conversations within the play that I think will then get people talking.”

Admitting that it’s changed her own perspective on climate issues, Meg says the show is “heavy” but also incredible. And with the production emphasising sustainability – using recycled and eco-friendly materials – Scenes from the Climate Era is also as reminder that there is hope and that no one is alone when feeling anxiety about the climate crisis.

“It’s even though there’s heavy content, there is a lot of humour, and there is joy in it as well,” she says.

“It’s not just about the climate, it’s political, and it’s to do with everything that we have going on in our – dare I say it – late-stage, capitalist society. It all ties in. But it’s also really Australian…it represents a lot of communities.”

Running for two nights only on Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 June, Scenes from the Climate Era offers a unique perspective on the climate conversation – one that doesn’t instil fear but does spark important dialogue. And unlike documentaries or news stories, Meg says the power of this play comes from its human connection.

“All props to David Attenborough because the work that man’s done is phenomenal, but it is that degree of separation where you are just sitting on your couch alone, listening and watching it,” she explains.

“Whereas live theatre, we’re right there and we can have a conversation post-show about it. But the point is, the show is the conversation, and that you get to share it with everyone else who’s in that theatre. I think it just makes it a bit more immediate.”

“The crux of the whole thing lies in those conversations that you have.”

Feature image: Brett Boardman.