Kepler-438B / La tierra prometida

A country disappearing beneath the ocean

This play was written in 2012 under the title La tierra prometida, which was changed to Kepler-438B for its world premiere at Bucharest’s Teatrul Odeon (Romania). Already translated into Greek and English, the text adopts a farcical tone to explore climate change for the first time and, above all, the ineffectiveness of international organisations in stopping its terrible consequences.

The action takes place at the United Nations headquarters in New York, at an unspecified point in the future. In the opening scene, Vincent Shawen, president of the fictional Republic of Malvati, addresses the General Assembly dressed as a deep-sea diver, seeking to draw every country’s attention to his nation’s critical situation. The small archipelago of Malvati has almost disappeared beneath the rising ocean, and Shawen asks his counterparts for an island where he can relocate his 30,000 climate refugees and establish a New Malvati.

The play follows the President and his diplomatic delegation—his own daughter and the Foreign Minister—as they face surreal situations in their many encounters with delegates from nations across the planet. As our protagonists try to save their homeland, they must also confront a far more personal and complex dilemma: the human and family relationships that bind them, not only as fellow citizens but as a family. Comedy, melodrama, political analysis, science fiction and mythology come together to make Kepler-438B a critical yet entertaining play about what is probably humanity’s most pressing problem today, one that the economic crisis has pushed into a troubling second place.