Review: Atlantis (Minerva Theatre, Chichester)

Review by Hywel Farrow-Wilton 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the second time in just over a week I have had the privilege of being invited to review a show at Chichester Festival Theatre, and I am so thrilled to report that they have once again succeeded in drawing a five-star rating from me. Co-produced by Theatr Clwyd, Atlantis plays in the Minerva Theatre, the smaller sister to the Festival Theatre, currently home to My Fair Lady, and whilst both are astonishingly brilliant shows, they could not be more different.

Atlantis serves as a stark reminder of the existential threat the climate crisis poses to all of humanity, especially how it is impacting the current generation of young people growing up under the looming threat of the collapse of human society and the natural world. This is perhaps made even more current by opening in Chichester in the same week our new Prime Minister signalled his intent to open the North Sea for oil and gas drilling, followed by over a month of record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires across Europe. 

Based on the real-life story of the village of Fairbourne in Gwynedd, the play centres on four generations of a family living in a small bungalow in rural Wales. It begins in 2011 when they are informed by the local council that the funding for the flood defences for their coastal village is unsustainable and, as a result, all villagers will undergo a “managed retreat” from 2025 onwards due to rising sea levels caused by climate change, with no compensation paid to the villagers. This angers retirees Bryn and his wife Gwen, with Bryn starting a campaign against the council’s decision, proclaiming that he will be “the last man standing”. Their political drive is contrasted by the laissez-faire attitude of their daughter Claire, a single mother who has just moved back in with her parents with her two young children, Rhiannon and Phillip, who has no time for protest and political activism as she’s too busy working her minimum-wage care job to support her children. The play follows the family all the way through to the year 2039 as Rhiannon and Phillip grow up under the dark spectre of the climate crisis and decide whether to have children of their own and whether to fight the crisis or find comfort in other places with the time still available.

Written by Emily White, who was commissioned to write Atlantis back in 2021, where she then won the George Devine Award, the production began life with a run at Theatr Clwyd beginning in June this year, and frankly I can’t believe it has taken so long for it to be produced. Emily White’s script is dark, funny, desperately urgent and made me want to leave and immediately join a protest. It reminded me quite strongly of Russell T. Davies’ 2019 TV miniseries Years & Years, which also followed multiple generations of a family through a speculative dystopian future of the UK to the 2030s; however, Atlantis is less apocalyptic and less focused on the general ‘doom and gloom’ of the future than Davies’ show, which is more watchable and lets the problems of the climate crisis sit more clearly at the heart of the show rather than getting bogged down with high-concept sci-fi dystopia.

Direction by Guy Jones is fitting not just because he is the co-founder of the Climate Playwriting Prize but also because he is evidently a fantastic director. What stood out to me was the transitions between time periods and how the family interacted with each other in each section. Each new period felt uniquely different in pace, tone and expression, as does each period of one’s life. I particularly enjoyed the transition between the Young Rhiannon and Phillip to their older selves, with some great old-school rebellion punk rock as they began painting their signs with Gwen for the Extinction Rebellion protest in London. 

At the head of the family are the grandparents, Bryn and Gwen, played by Richard Elfyn and Vivien Parry, who deliver two of the best performances I have seen this year. Both characters are working-class old-school lefties who have since retired from their activist ways and are now focused on helping to raise their grandchildren, instilling in them the values that they hold dear. Richard plays Bryn with a classic tone deaf ‘old-man’ cynicism that is often played for laughs, but towards the end of the play he delivers a heart-wrenching performance as he finally has to face leaving his house for the last time as “the last man standing”. Gwen is a feminist of the highest order, having been one of the women at Greenham Common Peace Camp during the Cold War, now faced with the creeping anxiety for the future widespread during the nuclear arms race that climate change has brought back into the world. Her desire to protest is reinvigorated when she takes the children to an Extinction Rebellion protest, and Parry’s performance is heartwarming, hilarious and emotionally devastating. 

Alfie Llewellyn as Phillip is astonishing as he moves from a hilarious, rebellious teenager through to a young man thrust into fatherhood. His performance as the teenage Phillip is one of the much-welcome lighter, comedic moments in the show, in which he shines, but as Phillip grows older and becomes a father, he takes on a more complicated character, trying to be a good father to his young child whilst balancing it with the anxieties and real-world impacts of climate change. Eirlys Lovell-Jones’s Rhiannon, much like Phillip, begins as a stereotype of a modern ‘woke’ teenager wracked with anxiety over the climate crisis and willing to do anything to fight and change the system that is bringing about the collapse of the world. As she grows older, she becomes a journalist just as driven as she was when she was younger but now facing the consequences of moving away from her family in Wales to pursue her career in London and how much things really change for the people she is supposedly fighting for. Eirlys’ performance really captures the guilt she feels for leaving her family, and she expertly personifies the constant anxiety that is carried by young people all over the world.  

The character of Claire, played by Catrin Aaron, is a grounding force to the headstrong activism of Gwen and Rhiannon as she points out the privileges associated with activism. Catrin plays her as loving but stressed and anxious about being able to provide for her children, more concerned with the plights of workers' rights and the cost of living than the climate crisis. Sara Otung as Phillip’s girlfriend and eventual wife Astrid creates some fantastic drama as she and Rhiannon argue over whether it is selfish to bring a child into a dying world. She finds brilliant nuance as Astrid is more focused on protecting and providing for herself and her family rather than fighting for people around the world suffering from the effects of climate change.

Atlantis is admittedly at times an uncomfortable watch, but as the climate crisis has slipped further and further down the priority list in the face of new wars, the rise of new right-wing regimes and the cost-of-living crisis, it is imperative that we, as a society, do not forget the monstrous consequences associated with inaction on the climate. If this show tells us anything, it’s that the effects of climate change are happening now, to the UK, and anyone can and will become victims or “climate refugees” as Bryn and Gwen are labelled in the show. I think the show is necessary viewing for all generations to remind us of the culture of protest that we have as a country and how we need to make sure that it is not lost as we fight back against one of the gravest threats that humanity has ever faced in our history. 

Atlantis plays at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester until 15^th August 2026. Tickets from https://www.cft.org.uk/events/atlantis

Photos by Marc Brenner & Danny Fitzpatrick