Kyoto production photos, January 2025 © Manuel Harlan

Acclaimed climate crisis drama Kyoto, by playwrights Joe Robertson (2008, English) and fellow Oxford alumnus Joe Murphy, transferred to @sohoplace in London’s West End in January 2025 as a co-production from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Good Chance.

The creative team behind the universally acclaimed play The Jungle reunite in this compelling political thriller about the historic 1997 Kyoto climate summit.

The play debuted at the Swan Theatre in Stratford in June 2024, directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin.

What’s On Stage’s five-star review describes it as “sheer theatrical magic” and it has received four-star reviews in The Guardian, The Observer, The Stage and The Financial Times.

Read an article about the play in The Guardian.

Kyoto production photos, January 2025 © Manuel Harlan

Joe Robertson and Joe Murphy are artistic directors of Good Chance theatre company, which they founded in 2015 after visiting the “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais. They built their first dome theatre there and hosted a programme of workshops, performances and artists from around the world, for people to share stories, music and art and find a space of welcome and expression.

Their experiences in the camp inspired their play The Jungle, which Joe Robertson discussed in his interview for the Spring 2019 issue of The Martlet. The Jungle has been a sell-out in the UK and US since 2017. It won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Theatre, and the 2018 Broadway World UK Award for Best New Production of a Play.

Published: 26 February 2025

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