In early November this year, a member of the Israeli cabinet claimed that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was “one of the possibilities” to deal with the area.
Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately suspended him from the cabinet.
It was a frightening reminder of a nuclear danger that still faces us, and one Chris Thorpe talks about in his one-person show, directed by Claire O’Reilly, that includes a Zoom guest appearance from Véronique Christory, the Senior Arms Control Adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Delegation to the United Nations.
The performance can feel like a gentle, occasionally interactive TED Talk with the audience being encouraged at times to answer questions about, for instance, the number of countries with nuclear weapons (nine, including Israel), and how many countries have signed agreements to “comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal of their total elimination” (none of the nuclear powers signed).
Chris recalls the 2022 UN conference on the issue he attended in Austria. The delegates from the countries who signed the treaty were mainly young, female and non-white. The three-day event spent half the allotted time on hearing the representatives of these countries, each, in turn, making practically the same statement. This irritated Chris, but Véronique pointed out that each statement probably cost a great deal in resisting the pressure of corporate interests and the threat from stronger countries to withdraw aid.
He illustrates the terrifying consequences of a nuclear explosion by film footage of the 2020 warehouse explosion in Beirut that caused 218 deaths and 7,000 injuries, making 300,000 people homeless. He points out that this explosion was tiny compared to Hiroshima, which instantly killed some 80,000, with many more dying later.
Using the free online resource of a ‘Nukemap’, he shows the extent of the deaths and damage if one of the relatively mild nuclear weapons the USA stores in the UK (only 21 times the Hiroshima bomb) hit the Royal Court Theatre. It would devastate most of the first three travel zones.
And such a nuclear explosion may not have been intentional. He mentions there are good reasons to believe that hackers could interfere with the operating systems controlling the launch of such weapons. Chris Thorpe’s style is relaxed and conversational, even when he casually tells us that he thinks there is a strong likelihood of a nuclear disaster.
The mood of the performance is always light. Chris drinks tea and offers people biscuits. When he asks an audience member what she thought was the biggest problem in London, her answer of “Parliament” prompts massive laughter and applause.
The show is worth seeing, but it only skims the surface of the issue. There’s no explanation for why it is so difficult to persuade the world to abolish such dangerous weapons or what we can do to change the situation.
If, as some people argue, nuclear dominance is a crucial element in the imperialist competition between stronger nations, then it will need a lot more than an amiable TED Talk to get disarmament or even perhaps avoid nuclear catastrophe.