THE CONTINGENCY PLAN is a double bill of plays from the frontline of climate change. They both stand alone and are complementary. Together, they present an epic portrait of an England of the near future, in which huge flooding has destroyed Bristol and threatens to sink the east coast.
ON THE BEACH
Thirty years ago, Robin Paxton silenced his radical thinking on climate change and with his wife Jenny withdrew from public life to their home on the Norfolk coast. Now, Robin's son Will, a glaciologist, has taken on his father's work. He returns from months in the Antarctic to tell his parents he will take up a role within government. Yet behind the happy reunion with his father, lies thirty years of secrecy and bitterness. As the truth surfaces, the family is torn apart, and Robin and Jenny must face the rising tide alone.
RESILIENCE
A Tory government has just come to power and wants radical answers to the imminent floods. Two new ministers, a true-blue Tory and a member of the Notting Hill set, try to outmenoeuvre and undermine each other. When the chief Civil Servant brings maverick glaciologist Will Paxton into the meeting, he puts an extreme scenario on the table: England, from the coastline to its capital, faces catastrophe.
Emma has been an Associate Artist of the Bush Theatre and her credits here include Three Birds, Where’s My Seat, Like A Fishbone, The Whiskey Taster, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, 2nd May 1997, Apologia, The Contingency Plan, Wrecks, Broken Space Season, 2000 Feet Away, My Romantic History and Tinderbox.
Theatre credits include Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Elizabeth (Royal Opera House), The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep), The Oresteia (Home Theatre, Manchester), Wuthering Heights, The Merchant Of Venice, Consensual (NYT), The Effect (Sheffield Theatres), Henry The Fifth (Unicorn Theatre, Imaginate Festival), All My Sons (Talawa Theatre, UK Tour), Hello/Goodbye, The Blackest Black, #aiww: The Arrest Of Ai Wei Wei, Lay Down Your Cross, Blue Heart Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre), Each His Own Wilderness, Widower’s House (Orange Tree Theatre), Accolade (St James Theatre), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Royal Exchange, Royal And Derngate And Northern Stage), Pitcairn (Out of Joint, Chichester Festival Theatre & UK Tour), Saints (Nuffield), The Colby Sisters Of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Tricycle Theatre), Pests (Clean Break, Royal Exchange & Royal Court), Carthage (Finborough Theatre, Coriolanus, Berenice, The Physicists, Making Noise Quietly, The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse), All My Sons, A Doll’s House, Three Birds, The Accrington Pals, Lady Windermere’s Fan (Royal Exchange), Much Ado About Nothing (Old Vic), Nut (National Theatre), OMG! (Sadlers Wells, The Place & Company Of Angels), There Are Mountains (Clean Break, HMP Askham Grange), The Promise (Donmar Warehouse at Trafalgar Studios), You Can Still Make A Killing (Southwark Playhouse), The Sacred Flame (English Touring Theatre), Black T-Shirt Collection (Fuel UK Tour and National Theatre), Invisible (Transport UK Tour & Luxemborg), Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndhams Theatre, West End), Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios), Charged (Clean Break, Soho Theatre), Men Should Weep (National Theatre), Travels With My Aunt (Northampton Theatre Royal), Sisters (Sheffield Theatres), Pornography (Birmingham Rep/Traverse and Tricycle Theatre), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (National Theatre), Europe (Dundee Rep, Barbican Pit).
Emma is the Associate Sound Designer for the National Theatre’s production of War Horse. She won the Falstaff Award for Best Sound Design/Original Score for her work on Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse in 2014.
Michael trained in directing at Mountview after reading Philosophy at
Nottingham University.
Theatre for the Bush includes: Stovepipe (HighTide in collaboration with the National Theatre).
Other theatre includes: dirty butterfly (Young Vic); 1 in 5 (Daring Pairings, Hampstead); The Death of Cool (Tristan Bates); New Voices: 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic); Gaudeamus (Arcola); Guardians (Pleasance, Edinburgh/Theatre503); Cargo (Pleasance, Edinburgh/Oval House ); Doctor Faustus (Djanogly, Lakeside Nottingham).
As Assistant Director: A Respectable Wedding
(Young Vic); Gaslight (Old Vic); The Family Plays (Royal Court).
Michael received the 2007 Jerwood Directors Award for dirty butterfly at the Young Vic. His 2005 Fringe First-winning production of Guardians was recently included as part of the This is War exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery.
Theatre credits include Julius Caesar, The Drunks ,The Grain Store (RSC), The Contingency Plan (Bush Theatre), Mary Stewart ( Hipp theatre, Sweden); Hedda Gabler ( Gate Theatre Dublin);Happy Now? (Cottesloe NT); Private Lifes and The Giant (Hampstead theatre); Endgame (Everyman Liverpool); Far From The Madding Crowd ( ETT tour); Lady From The Sea and She Stoops To Conquer (Birmingham Rep); The Elephant Man ( Lycium Sheffield & Tour); Kean (Apollo theatre, West End); Glass Eels ,Comfort Me With Apples ( Hampstead theatre);Jack and the Beanstalk (Barbican Theatre); Pure Gold ( Soho Theatre) Henry V ,Mirandolina and A Convseration (Royal Exchange); Terms of Enderment ( Tour);Restoration (Bristol Old Vic and Tour for Headlong); My Fair Lady (Cameron Mackintosh/National Theatre Tour production); The Caretaker ( Tricycle Theatre), Comedy of Errors, Bird Calls , Iphigenia (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The Doll?s House (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Sunshine on Leith (Dundee Rep & Tour):Heartbreak House (Watford Palace) A Model Girl(Greenwich theatre) The Solid Gold Cadillac (Garrick Theatre, West End); The Secret Rapture (Lyric Shaftesbury Avenue); Noises Off , All My Son?s , Dr. Faustus (Liverpool Playhouse); On The Piste ( Birmingham Rep); The Chairs ( Gate theatre); Follies ,Insignificance and Breaking the Code (Theatre Royal, Northampton) Tartuffe , The Gentleman From Olmedo, The Venetian Twins, Hobson?s Choice, Dancing at Lughnasa, Love in a Maze (Watermill Theatre); Fields of Gold , Villette (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Cinderella (Bristol Old Vic); Hysteria and Children Of A Lesser God (Salisbury Playhouse).
Opera credits include: Samson et Delilah, Lohengrin (Royal Opera House); The Trojan Trilogy and The Nose (Linbury ROH);The Gentle Giant (The Clore ROH); The Threepenny Opera (for the Opera Group); L’Opera Seria (Batignano Festival)
Tamara Harvey returns to the Bush to direct. Her previous credits for the company include Resillience as part of Steve Water’s The Contingency Plan and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ!. In the West End, she has directed Plague Over England (also the original production at the Finborough), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Co-Director) and Whipping It Up (Olivier Award nominee, Best New Comedy, from the original production at the Bush by Terry Johnson). Her other theatre work includes Dancing at Lughnasa (Birmingham Rep), Tell Me On A Sunday (UK tour), the premiere of Alistair McGowan’s Timing, Who’s The Daddy? (King’s Head Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), Bedroom Farce (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Theatre of Memory at Middle Temple Hall), Rock (UK tour), Touch Wood, Purvis, Storm In A Tea Chest, The Prodigal Son (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough), Closer (Royal Theatre, Northampton), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (UK tour), Bash (Trafalgar Studios), An Hour And A Half Late (Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour), The Importance Of Being Earnest (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, USA), Sitting Pretty (Watford Palace), Markings (Southwark Playhouse/Traverse, Edinburgh), The Graduate (UK tour), Young Emma and Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Finborough), The Lion, The With And The Wardrobe (Maitisong, Botswana). Tamara spent much of 2010 directing the theatre plays that form an integral part of Roland Emmerich’s new film, Anonymous. She is a trustee of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, a selector for the National Student Drama Festival and is a member of the 2011 panel for the George Devine Award for most Promising Playwright.
Theatre includes: Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong); Unbroken, The Internationalist (Gate, London); Bay (Young Vic); The Merchant of Venice (Octagon, nominated for the Manchester Evening News Best Design Award 2008); Metropolis (Theatre Royal, Bath); The Observer (design consultant, National Theatre Studio); Paradise Lost (Southwark Playhouse); Mad Funny Just (Old Vic New Voices Award winner 2008); The Water Harvest (Theatre503); Return (Watford Palace); The Comedy of Errors (RSC); Skellig (onO Productions); Loaded (Fireraisers). Forthcoming work includes: After Miss Julie (Salisbury Playhouse).
For his work with Headlong Theatre, Tom was awarded the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize and the Jocelyn Herbert Award for Stage Design.
David Bark-Jones Chris
Theatre includes: The Way of the World (Theatre Royal and Derngate, Northampton); The Forest, Machinal, Arcadia (National Theatre); Schippel the Plumber (Watford Palace); Julius Caesar
(Birmingham Rep); All's Well That Ends Well (Royal Exchange); Some Sunny Day (Hampstead); Venice Preserved (Almeida); Dealer's Choice (National Theatre/Vaudeville); Les Liaisons
Dangereuses (Wolsey, Ipswich); She Stoops to
Conquer (Derby Playhouse).
TV includes: New Tricks, Slings and Arrows, Wilson, No Angels, Rosemary and Thyme, Life for Daniel, Rough Treatment, Oliver Twist, Bramwell, A Wing and a Prayer, The Legacy of Reggie Perrin, Pride and Prejudice, Press Gang, Trainer.
Film includes: The Calling, RocknRolla, Sixty Six, The Da Vinci Code, A Gentle Creature (short).
Stephanie trained at LAMDA and studied English
at Cambridge University.
Theatre includes: Shades (Royal Court); The Scarecrow and his Servant (Southwark); Sweet Cider (Arcola); Too Close to Home (Lyric); The Laramie Project (Kit Productions); The Vagina Monologues (UK tour); Dark Meaning Mouse (Finborough); Strictly Dandia (Tamasha Theatre Company); As You Like It (Greenwich
Observatory); Arabian Nights (ATC Productions).
TV includes: Monday Monday, Apparitions, Holby City, Never Better,
EastEnders, Primeval, Commander III, Soundproof, Coming Up 2005,
Heavenly Father, Nylon, Doctors, Twenty Things to Do Before You're Thirty, Red Cap, The Last Detective.
Robin Soans’ plays include: One Turbulent Ambassador (Lyric Hammersmith/LAMDA), Mixed Up North (Bolton Octagon/Out of Joint/National Tour/Wilton’s Music Hall), Life After Scandal (Hampstead Theatre), Talking To Terrorists (Royal Court/Out of Joint – nominated for Best Play at the TMA Awards), The Arab- Israeli Cookbook (Gate Theatre/Tricycle Theatre/Met Theatre, Los Angeles), A State Affair (Out of Joint/Soho Theatre), Sinners and Saints (Croydon Warehouse), Bet Noir (Young Vic).
His books include: as co-author of Verbatim Verbatim (Oberon), Deep Heat (Oberon), and The Arab-Israeli Cookbook: The Recipes (Aurora Metro Publications - winner of the Best Innovative Food Book UK and the Special Jury Prize for Peace at the Gourmand World Book Awards).
For radio, his credits include: Not Today Thank You, The Arab Israeli Cookbook, Talking To Terrorists, Life After Scandal, and A State Affair.
Also an accomplished actor, Soans will soon be appearing in the national tour of Visitors opposite Linda Bassett.
Theatre includes: Harper Regan, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Playing With Fire, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Cardiff East (National Theatre); Easter, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Bad Weather (RSC); Road, Shirley, Downfall, Gibraltar Strait, Seagulls
(Royal Court); Dying For It, Butterfly Kiss (Almeida); The Wild Duck (Donmar Warehouse); The Chairs, The House of Bernarda Alba (Gate, London); You Be Ted and I'll Be Sylvia (Hampstead); The Beaux Stratagem, Back to Methuselah, The Vortex, The Way of the
World, A Woman of No Importance (Cambridge Theatre Company); Playing Sinatra (The Warehouse/Greenwich); Twelfth Night (English Touring Theatre); Small Change, Iphigenia (Sheffield Crucible).
TV includes: Road (Winner Prix Italia), Loving Hazel, Making Out, Absolute Hell, Nona, Prime Suspect, The Riff Raff Element, September Song, A Touch of Frost, Taggart, Wokenwell, Anorak of Fire, The Vice, Wire in the Blood, The Best of Both Worlds, Blue Dove, Dalziel and Pascoe, Brides in the Bath, La Femme Musketeer, Rose and Maloney, Pinochet in Suburbia, Torchwood (to be
screened in June).
Film includes: Brideshead Revisited, Hope and Glory.
Radio includes: Number 10, Felix Holt the Radical.
Theatre includes: The Contingency Plan: On the Beach and Resilience (Bush Theatre); Pains of Youth, The History Boys, The Bacchai (National); Journey's End (West End); Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3, Richard III, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Henry V (RSC); Nathan the Wise, Merchant of Venice (Chichester).
TV includes: Ashes to Ashes, Hunter, Elizabeth I, 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, Midsomer Murders, Timewatch, The Other Boleyn Girl, Love in a Cold Climate, Sword of Honour.
Film includes: Angel, Matchpoint, Kinky Boots.
