The Contingency Plan is a double-bill of plays addressing climate change. Together they present an epic portrait of an England of the near future, in which huge floods have destroyed Bristol and threaten to sink the east coast. 

The two plays, which can be viewed together or as stand alone pieces, are Resilience and On The Beach.

Resilience is a Whitehall satire in which a recently elected Tory government wants radical answers to the imminent floods. Two new ministers – a true-blue Tory and a member of the Notting Hill set – try to out-manoeuvre and undermine each other. When Sarika Chatterjee, the chief Civil Servant, brings maverick glaciologist Will Paxton into the meeting, he puts an extreme scenario on the table; England, from its coastline to its capital, faces catastrophe.

In On The Beach, Will returns from the Antartic Survey to visit his parental home on the Norfolk coast. His father is a discredited climatologist and radical thinker. Will’s decision to work from within goverment enrages his father and brings the family to breaking point. Will’s mother Jenny struggles to keep the peace but a much more immediate threat faces the couple. When the floods come, will they leave their home and the landscape they love for higher ground?

Steve Waters, author of The Contigency Plan, has written several other plays including Fast Labour, Plague Of People, English Journeys and After The Gods. 

For more about The Contingency Plan at the Bush theatre, read the First Night Feature.