- Opening Night:
- March 1, 2018
- Closing:
- March 18, 2018
Theater: La MaMa theater company in Manhattan
An initial review:
''I loved the play and very timely, what with all the extreme weather we have been having worldwide. It's in the headlines every day!. Extreme Whether poses a bitter debate over the future of the Earth, this little planet falling through space, but it also becomes a meditation on the sublime in nature. Written in a mix of prose and poetry, with invective, humor and a full musical score, Extreme Whether sets the battle over human-made global warming within a single American family as a challenge to the family at this moment of climate crisis. A major climate scientist, his colleague and lover, an Arctic scientist, wage fierce battle with his twin sister, a PR operative for the energy industry, and her husband, a lobbyist, over scientific truth and an inherited wilderness estate. His wise-child daughter and her side-kick named ''Uncle'' work to protect the natural world and sabotage its abusers.''
GO SEE THIS PLAY IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SEEN IT. An 18-day run in NYC. Must-see!
A NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF ''EXTREME WEATHER''
James Hansen was not in the audience at a recent performance of Extreme Whether, but he just may have been. Why? A NASA scientist for decades before his retirement, Dr. Hansen has been called the first man to speak the words “global warming” before members of the U.S. Congress, in 1988, and the play’s protagonist was partly inspired by him, according the producer and director Karen Malpede. I wonder what Dr Hansen would say about seeing this play in the Era of Trump in 2018? Let’s hope this play, written and directed by veteran social activist Malpede, will help to raise awareness. Rocco Sisto, a fine actor, leads the cast and plays John Bjornson, the noble and frustrated NASA climate scientist at the center of a family drama with larger consequences.The cli-fi stage play juxtaposes psychological and magical realism in a tale of a courageous climate researcher who is defamed by special interests, including his own family. Did I say that Obie-winner Rocco Sisto heads a cast of six? Yes.
Set during the record-hot summers of 2004 and 2012, the play pits a scientist named John Bjornson (Sisto) against his twin sister, Jeanne (Dee Pelletier), in a no-holds barred struggle over land ownership and the future use of their family’s wilderness estate. The sister is an energy spokeswoman and is married to a climate-skeptic lobbyist (Khris Lewin), who helps strategize her actions. The siblings’ dispute reveals the fault lines in America today over land usage, global warming and climate denial. Supporting John’s struggle for the land are three people. One is the caretaker of the estate, an oracular, Thoreau-like man named Uncle (Obie-winner George Bartenieff). The others are John’s precocious 13-year old intersex daughter (Emma Rose Kraus, an Oklahoma actress making her New York stage debut) and a young ice scientist with an important new theory (Clea Straus Rivera).
The TIMES OF ISRAEL SAYS:
If you’re in the New York City area, catch the play. If you’re far away or overseas, but still interested in the stage drama, check the reviews later in the New York papers -- and the Village Voice. The play’s the thing.
TWEETS:
The play’s the thing: ‘Extreme Weather’ creates headlines and a ‘cli-fi’ drama titled ‘Extreme Whether’ 
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