Ten Billion

Today there are 7 billion of us on the planet. Very soon, we shall be 10 billion and more. What will be the consequences of this? Katie Mitchell wanted to let a scientists voice be heard, Stephen Emmott's voice, outside professional coteries and out on stage – where words are meant to be shared. An untypical scientist, come to share his reflections and his questionings but also to reveal something of himself as a human being; to speak of the changes shaking our environment and to try and imagine our complex and uncertain future. This is not some ex cathedra pronouncement but rather one man speaking in an imagined, dramaturgically constructed space which allows him to set forth the destructive mechanisms of our species – and to denounce approximations and half-truths. Visual and video imaging together with sound constructions combine in this examination and analysis of what is at stake for our future; a shared future in the face of which silence and fear and soporific procrastination are simply not enough. Katie Mitchell and Stephen Emmott present a theatrical event and a place where words are actions, at a point in history when to do nothing would constitute “an act of criminal negligence”. JFP

direction Katie Mitchell
designer Giles Cadle
video design Leo Warner and Tim Reid for 59 Productions
music Paul Clark
lighting Jon Clark
sound Gareth Fry
associate director Lyndsey Turner

with Stephen Emmott and Kate Duchêne (interpretation into French)

production Royal Court Theatre
coproduction Festival d'Avignon
with the support of the British Council