Kyoto

It's not a negotiation, it's hand to hand combat. 11 December 1997 The Kyoto Conference Centre, 5am The nations of the world are in deadlock. Eleven hours have passed since the UN's landmark climate conference should have ended. Time is running out. And agreement feels a world away. Their prize: the world's first legally binding emissions targets. Their obstacle: American oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman. Kyoto is the breathless tale of a moment when, finally, the impossible seemed possible. It opened at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in June 2024, in a co-production between Good Chance and the RSC.

Joe Murphy grew up in Leeds and Joe Robertson grew up in Hull. They began writing plays together at university in 2011. Their short plays include Fairway Manor (Burton Taylor Studio, Oxford Playhouse), Ten Bits on Boondoggling and Paper Play (Edinburgh Fringe) and Maria Popova (Manchester festivals). In 2015, they established Good Chance in the 'Jungle' refugee and migrant camp in Calais, a space of expression where theatre, art, dance and music could be made. They lived there for seven months until the eviction of the southern half of the camp. Their first full-length play, The Jungle, based on their experience in Calais, opened at the Young Vic in 2017, before transferring to the West End (2018), New York (2019/2023), San Francisco (2019) and Washington DC (2023). In 2021, Good Chance co-created The Walk, an 8,000km moving festival of welcome from Syria to Manchester with Little Amal, a three-metre tall puppet based on a character from The Jungle.