On trial for crimes against the environment, young people become our jury

Posted on 12 May, 2023

Imagine a future where today’s adults are held accountable for every decision we have made that has come at the cost of the environment.

And imagine we are on trial, to be judged by those who have to live with the consequences of our actions—our children.

Canberra Youth Theatre’s latest production, The Trials, takes us inside the courtroom for a shocking and searingly-relevant legal reckoning.

Written by Dawn Kind, this is the Australian premiere of this critical new play, direct from London’s West End.

Canberra Youth Theatre Director Luke Rogers said there was no more important work with which to open the 2023 season.

“There isn’t a more pressing, urgent and relevant play that I have read in years for us to be producing with our young artists and presenting for our audiences here in Australia’s political centre. The artists of our nation’s capital have a unique responsibility to reflect the political moment, and our young artists take that responsibility personally.

“The climate crisis is a real and present danger that sits at the forefront of their consciousness. We may ask ourselves, ‘What kind of world are we going to leave for our children?’ The Trials confronts an even more uncomfortable question – how will they judge us for it?”

Phoebe Silberman, who plays Kako in the production, said “What makes this show different from the usual things you might read about climate change is that it’s a creative exploration of people’s actual lives. I feel like a lot of things online are just scary facts about things that might happen, but The Trials is exploring how people react to that and how it’s really changing their lives. Being involved in the show, I find myself considering climate change a lot more in my daily life. It introduces this idea of what could happen into my life and makes me want to start change.”

Set in a dystopian future, in a state of environmental catastrophe that Canberrans had a small taste of during the 2020 bushfire season when smoke blanketed the city and robbed us of fresh air, The Trials divides children and parents into jurors and defendants in a series of dramatic public trials.

In heat that is stifling, the jury of young people must weigh up the fate of adult defendants, each of whom attempts to defend their carbon footprint and its devastating consequences. But are the jury delivering justice, or just taking revenge?

The Trials premiered in Germany at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in January last year, and has recently completed a critically-acclaimed season at the Donmar Warehouse in London, where reviews described it as “a compelling and fascinating parable about the near future that’s also an unsettling window into the vertiginous chaos of revolution”(Time Out) and “a compelling play that demands self-reflection and soul-searching beyond the auditorium.” (The Guardian)

Canberra Youth Theatre’s production of The Trials will be the first time the work has been produced in Australia. It features a cast of twelve teenage actors working alongside three established adult actors, well-known to Canberra audiences: Michael Sparks, Zsuzsi Soboslay, and Elaine Noon.

It will prompt audience members to consider the burning questions of our age—what kind of planet are we leaving for our children? Will they condemn us for not taking action when we had the chance? And will they be justified?