You might imagine the title of this play to be the provocative demand of a Tory Home Secretary. However, neither Just Stop Oil nor Extinction Rebellion are mentioned in this romantic comedy set amongst a group of climate activists.
The upper-class-sounding Millicent Forbes-Frobischer (Louise Bangay) arrives at her first meeting saying she “didn’t know what to expect from a terrorist organisation.”
She is lively, assertive and very pushy, but none of this deters Ben (James Price) from developing a growing interest in her. He opens the show with a frustrated phone call with his ex-partner, Petra (Orsolya Nagy), whom he misses.
Millicent is also separated many months from her partner, Henry (Stephen Riddle). Spotting the awkward Ben’s interest, she encourages it. But the insecure Ben isn’t quite ready for another relationship, and when with others he attends her dinner party, he spends many hours hiding in the toilet.
If the play’s central story of Ben is one of frustration with women depicted negatively, the comedy is very slight and crude. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the antics of the climate activists, who seem to be derived more from politically right-wing media parodies than any real experience.
When George, the leading figure in the group, meets Millicent, he asks, “have you been vetted?” The meeting begins with Gaia (Orsolya Nagy), a comic book figure from some 1960s hippie cult, leading them all in a chant as they sit crossed-legged on the floor.
Their first protest action claimed by George as a proposal “from head office” will be to “egg bomb vehicles using excess fuel.” Millicent, being the pushy woman, starts way ahead of the others, egg bombing her social circle in Barnes that have offended her in some way.
When the play eventually touches on something that has been a real debate about tactics of direct action disruption, with George wanting to block a road in Barnes and Millicent arguing instead to influence the powerful opinion makers, it does so in a cartoonish manner, with George ranting and Millicent blocking the exit with her body so they know what it's like to have their time disrupted.
The show is meant to be a light and harmless apolitical romance with an added context sparkle. But its characters are undeveloped and the central romance is cluttered by some cartoonish presentation.
There is also the issue of how the political aspect of what they do lands. In adopting tabloid ideas about activists, it does sit clumsily in a politically conservative camp.