Gate Theatre Reveals New Season of Work

Following the critically acclaimed and sold-out success of Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here, the Gate will stage David Finnigan’s formally inventive Scenes from the Climate Era at The Playground Theatre in Autumn.

Atri Banerjee will direct this bold rollercoaster ride of a production that tackles the most urgent question of our time: how do we live in the face of ecological collapse?  Banerjee has been appointed Artistic Lead for the Gate, in an evolution of his role as Creative Associate, and continues to ensure artist voices are embedded in Gate programme and strategy at every level.

Alongside this, the Gate is proud to release This Room, Now, a vibrant short film celebrating the possibility of theatre, written by Chris Thorpe who is cast alongside Tamara Lawrance. This will be streamed for free online with Exeunt magazine from Friday 27 June for three months.

The Gate is also thrilled to be partnering with Woven Voices to present the Woven Voices Prize for Playwriting in association with the Gate. This prestigious award creates a vital pathway for migrant artists in the UK to have their work read, shared and developed, bringing their stories to life. Now in its third year, the Woven Voices Prize builds on the success of its previous editions, celebrating migrant writers and their vital contributions to a global, multicultural Britain.

CEO Nicola Clements said “In a fractured and increasingly isolating world, it is a source of great pride that the Gate’s founding mission of celebrating international stories means that we have not only the desire and ambition to bring people together, but a mandate to do so. This season of work is about the whole world over. At the Gate, we’re committed to stories across borders; what impacts us all, the things that tear us apart, and those that bring us together. And the three projects we’re proud to be presenting today are not just international, but global, in their own respective ways.

With Scenes from the Climate Era, we are bringing the single most pressing issue for the whole planet into sharp relief, in a way that is both galvanising and provocative. Our partnership with Woven Voices, supported by the Arts Council, will pave the way for more international stories on our stages with the prize offering new routes for migrant artists. Our short film This Room, Now is a celebration of everything theatre is and can be.

Since 2023, Atri and I have been working in partnership to interrogate what the world would lose if the Gate didn’t exist. This season is our answer.”

Scenes from the Climate Era

Written by David Finnigan
Directed by Atri Banerjee
Designed by Anna Yates

Tuesday 23 September to Saturday 25 October 2025 at The Playground Theatre

Stage one: denial.
Stage two: optimism. Solutions.
Stage three: grief. Anger. Despair.

Go through the stages, and then make a decision.

Atri Banerjee directs the European premiere of David Finnigan’s Scenes from the Climate Era, a play about today, the choices we have made and their consequences.

Four performers take us through a dizzying series of vignettes, packed with humour and heart, all tackling the biggest story of our time. From genetically modified mice to massive Antarctic flood barriers; from community halls in Snowdonia to nightclubs on the outskirts of Beijing. Scientists, activists, friends around dinner tables; yesterday, tomorrow, today.

An unflinchingly raw, funny and honest look at how the conversations around the climate crisis shape our everyday lives, our communities and the biological world around us.

Writer David Finnigan said “We’ve been talking about climate change for more than 50 years. For most of that time, the conversation has been stuck in a loop. Scientists, politicians, activists and climate deniers repeat the same things, while the only thing changing is the concentration of greenhouse gases.  In the last few years, everything changed. Climate science, climate activism and climate denial have all transformed, while climate impacts are hitting faster and harder than anyone predicted. Everything has broken loose, and it’s dizzying.

This play is my attempt to capture some of the thousands of extraordinary stories taking place on the frontline of the climate conversation right now. I’m delighted that the Gate will be bringing this show to life and can’t wait to share these stories with London audiences.”

Director Atri Banerjee said “Scenes from the Climate Era does what all great theatre should do – it entertains, it challenges, it informs, it moves. It’s a kaleidoscopic encounter with the most pressing existential question of our age - the climate crisis - and is by turns hilarious and devastating, experimental without being alienating. David’s writing is crammed with not just knowledge and erudition, but a ton of humour and feeling. It's a genuinely thrilling night out at the theatre with a radically political imperative at its heart. I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

David Finnigan is a playwright and game designer from Ngunnawal country in Australia. He works with climate and earth scientists to create theatre and games about complex systems and planetary transformation.

In 2023, David’s play Scenes from the Climate Era premiered at the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney. His 2022 solo show Deep History was awarded a Scotsman Fringe First award and featured at The Public Theater New York and the Barbican London. His playscript Kill Climate Deniers was awarded the 2017 Griffin Award.

David has worked with scientists from institutions including University College London, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Australian Academy of Science, the Wellcome Trust and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He was a speaker at the TED conference in Vancouver in 2024.

Atri Banerjee is Artistic Lead (formerly Creative Associate) at the Gate. His directing credits include Look Back in Anger (Almeida); Julius Caesar (RSC); The Glass Menagerie (Royal Exchange/ UK tour); SHED: EXPLODED VIEW, Hobson’s Choice (both Royal Exchange); Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith); Kes (Octagon Theatre Bolton/ Theatre by the Lake); HARM (Bush).

Atri received a 2022-24 Peter Hall Bursary from The National Theatre. In 2019, for Hobson’s Choice, he won The Stage Debut Award for Best Director. In 2021, he filmed HARM for BBC Four. His translations of Pier Lorenzo Pisano’s Carbon (Eurodram commendation) and Ubah Cristina Ali Farah’s Antigone Power are included in the upcoming Methuen Drama Anthology of Contemporary Italian Plays.

Atri was previously Trainee Director at the Royal Exchange and a Resident Director at the Almeida. He sits on the Boards of the Marlowe Theatre and the Regional Theatre Young Directors’ Scheme (RTYDS).

Full cast and creative team will be announced shortly.

This Room, Now

A new short film written by Chris Thorpe

Performed by Tamara Lawrance and Chris Thorpe
Directed by Atri Banerjee
Director of Photography & Editor - Monika Davies
Original Soundtrack composed by Carmel Smickersgill

Atri Banerjee directs Tamara Lawrance and Chris Thorpe in Thorpe’s short piece This Room, Now, filmed by Monika Davies – a short film spanning a vast terrain of identity, place and belonging, all seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl.  A love letter to theatre and its possibility; This Room, Now is an articulation of the Gate's belief in the power of storytelling and necessity of curiosity.

There's a girl. About twelve. Proper geography enthusiast.

Antwerp to Antsiranana, Glasgow to Guangzhou.

From one end of the Earth to the other.

Can I say Lagos?

Can I say Jakarta, or Windhoek, or Austin?

A young girl tries to make sense of it all. Is there a place for her?

Chris Thorpe is a writer and performer from Manchester. His work is produced and tours worldwide. He has ongoing collaborative relationships with a range of artists and organisations including Javaad Alipoor, Claire O'Reilly, Yusra Warsama, Rachel Chavkin, Rachel Bagshaw, Staatstheater Mainz, China Plate, HOME Manchester, Sydney Festival, the UN and ICAN. Previous work for the Gate includes performing in Dear Elizabeth (live and online versions) and writing for Chorus, part of The Iphigenia Quartet.

This Room, Now originally commissioned for stage in 2024. Filmed at the Omnibus Theatre.

Woven Voices Prize for Playwriting in association with the Gate

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

The Gate is deeply committed to showcasing international theatre, and proud to be partnering with Woven Voices to make it possible for more migrant voices to be heard on UK stages. The winning playwright will receive a commission of £3500, and a bespoke R&D process for their winning script.  The first runner up will receive a commission of £750 and up to three runners up will be offered an opportunity to create a filmed reading of their scripts.  In addition, Woven Voices will produce new episodes of their Migreatives podcast featuring the winner and runners up of the prize. 

The competition is eligible to those who primarily live and work in the UK and identify as a migrant. There is no age limit, and no minimum or maximum level of experience to enter. Submitted scripts must be an original, unpublished and unproduced piece of work.

The submission window opens on Friday 27 June and will close Sunday 27 July.

Woven Voices Co-founders Nadia Cavelle and Zachary Fall said ‘We are thrilled to be partnering with the Gate for the Woven Voices Prize's third iteration. The company's mission to champion international work in the UK aligns so completely with ours, and we are excited to become part of its long-standing and impressive track record of doing just that. After a fantastic response to the first two outings of the prize, and the high calibre of the work we have uncovered, we are proud to continue providing a platform that celebrates bold voices and brings fresh perspectives to UK stages. At a time when the presence and contributions of migrants are increasingly politicised and undermined, we believe it’s vital to back migrant artists as creators, commentators and cultural leaders in their own right’.

Artistic Lead appointment

At the Gate we adapt and respond to the world around us, keeping art at the heart of our practice whilst allowing for and enabling changes to the way we work. We have introduced a new role, Artistic Lead, which allows the Gate and our artists to benefit from regular senior artistic consultancy and support whilst staying responsive to the programming and delivery cycles of the company.

Atri Banerjee joined the Gate in 2023, via a public recruitment process, in the role of Creative Associate, to support the development of a new business plan. In his new role as Artistic Lead, he is responsible for the curation and delivery of our artistic programme, working closely with the Gate’s Senior Producer and Executive Director & CEO, supporting artists to make their best work and keeping art at the heart of our strategy and business planning.