The counter-intuitive heart of Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s play Kyoto is its focus on the machinations of an apparent villain to tell the story of what turned out to be a significant victory of the good.

That victory—the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997—is the end-highpoint of the play, now recalled as a landmark achievement that didn’t ultimately lead to sustained global change.

By the time of the protocol officially going into force in 2005, 192 countries had signed up to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the initial blaze of achievement around its ratification faded next to its long-term lack of vigorous application (and being superseded by the Paris Agreement of 2016).

This Royal Shakespeare Company production—arriving in New York after playing to a wave of acclaim in

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