“Deep History” takes the long view of global climate change

Australian playwright and game designer David Finnigan has, for years, been making plays to inform and alert audiences around the world to the dangers of climate change. In Deep History, now at the Public Theatre in New York, he presents a fascinating view of history. Finnigan posits that the climate crisis we find ourselves in is nothing new to us as a species, and even before we were a species.

The kingdoms of animals and plants have seen massive upheavals in the past, will no doubt see them in the future, and have managed to survive and adapt with each new crisis.

Finnigan works with climate and earth scientists to develop theater and games about complex systems and planetary transformations. In Deep History, where he is the sole performer, he guides us through 800,000 years of increasingly rapid — well, relatively speaking — changes to our planet, listing lessons that can be taken away from each new environmental shift we experience. He talks us through the horrendous Australian wildfires of 2009 which killed over 170 people, guiding us through his best friend and the friend’s family’s harrowing attempts to flee the encroaching flames. He advances his story by incorporating videos, charts, a science experiment, and memories of his adventurous rock-climbing father

As Finnigan says in the Playwright’s Notes in the show’s program: “This is not the first time that humans have faced a dramatic shift in global climate, storms and floods and fires that escalate with shocking speed. The world has transformed many times in the past, and our ancestors bore witness to some of those shocks.

We’ve been here before. So maybe we need to look back to who we were, in order to find out who we might need to become.”

Deep History is not just a compelling story. It is a rebuff to climate change deniers of all stripes. And it is a call to action to help us get through what will be an inevitable change of life for every living thing on the face of the earth. It is a must-see show, and I cannot more strongly urge you to see it. You will be energized and enlightened by David Finnigan’s Deep History.

Deep History is presented in the Susan Stein Shiva Theatre at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., at Astor Place, New York through Nov. 10, 2024. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to publictheater.org or call 212-967-7555.