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REVIEW | The Beautiful Future is Coming, Bristol Old Vic
- Harry Brogan
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review
TW/CW: Contains themes of grief, climate and birth anxiety; descriptions of extreme weather events, drowning, burning and suicide. Contains strong language and strobe lighting.
The Beautiful Future is Coming by Flora Wilson Brown perfectly creates a sense of hope which is so important right now when thinking about the unsettling future curated by climate change. This play follows three time frames as we uncover their plans and hopes for the ‘beautiful’ future, trying to create a difference for the next generation. Within the contexts of each time, (1856, 2027, 2100) the audience is given very similar stories, while highlighting the women and the challenges that they face.
Each character felt believable, especially Eunice (played by Phoebe Thomas) and Ana (played by Rosie Dwyer). The sense of panic for the future within their voices became very clear. Eunice’s need to share the truth and to publish her book was very empowering considering the historical context and her male peers constantly pushing her aside. And to move to a more recognisable era (2027) and a distant future (2100) was crafted very well by Brown to interlock the stories together while also holding them apart to make them more understandable for the viewer. The two characters within the year 2027, Dan (played by Michael Salami) and Claire (played by Nina Singh), greatly imitated the voices of people within the present and how many people would be thinking of the future right now. These characters became more laughable by the audience due to the close connection that we have to what they were saying.
The shifts in time frames worked perfectly to depict the constant feeling of the future and climate change and how this mentality has never changed and will seem to continue to the future. But the only negative aspect that came from this was it felt quite disorientating at the beginning, and without context on what to expect it would be quite confusing. But this would only be the case for the first few scenes as it became more clear as the scenes began to play simultaneously.
For a story that constantly switches between time periods, costumes become very important to differentiate where we are within the narrative, and Aldo Vázquez’s costume design worked perfectly. From the ruffles and patterns of the 19th Century to the everyday clothing of the 21st century. The design for the future clothing worked so well, creating a toned down outfit that fits the theme of a lack of resources instead of the high tech designs that are depicted in many films and movies.
Vázquez’s set design greatly supported the piece, using sliding doors for the more modern time frames and creating a larger space for the past time. The use of space worked well, creating a smaller area for the scenes set in the future to indicate a lack of space that would have taken place between the timeframes due to the rising climate. The only critic I would have towards the set is the furniture used. At the beginning it seemed that each time frame had their own set of tables and chairs but over time the furniture from the past was used within all, but it would mean that the scene changes would have taken longer so I see why they did that.
Overall, The Beautiful Future Is Coming is a great message of hope for the world right now, and the realistic voices within this play perfectly mimics the voices of so many people that have been thinking about the future of our planet. I think that any generation would resonate with this play, and be able to perform it for years to come as the message will never not be relevant.
★★★★.5
The Beautiful Future is Coming plays at the Bristol Old Vic until the 7th of June.
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