Though Filter Theatre’s reputation is founded upon its disorientating remixes of classic texts like ‘Twelfth Night’, it’s striking how slick a package this revival of 2007’s devised piece ‘Water’ is. This
is no bad thing: unlike the NT’s ‘Greenland’– the other show about climate change that opened last week – ‘Water’ is a concise, entertaining work.
It begins with a lecture about the properties of water and how, like this uniquely gregarious molecule, the human race must pull together against its own nature in order to preserve the planet. The interweaving plot strands that comprise the rest of the play make it clear that this will not happen:
the cave diver who allows his competitive streak to isolate him; the couple forced apart by her unwillingness to compromise her career; the climate change conference undermined by self-interest; the irreconcilable half-brothers.
Depressing stuff, really, yet undercut by a certain eagerness to please. The fast pace, abundant humour and well-drilled use of sound effects and actors’ voices are all very enjoyable, but there’s a more difficult, abrasive and rewarding play in here than Filter has allowed.
Sugared pills can impart powerful truths, but there’s nothing in ‘Water’s underlying pessimism to challenge assumptions about climate change. But it is entertaining, and the trio of concluding set pieces – a final descent into the deep; a meeting on a seawall; a huge, beautiful aquarium – do bring belated gravitas.