Greenland

Synopsis

Joan, a soft-left Labour candidate, is the protagonist of Howard Brenton’s unusual and provocative play Greenland, the final work in his utopian trilogy. The two-act play is divided between a satirical portrayal of Thatcherite Britain in Act One and a visit to the anarchist utopia of Greenland 700 years in the future in Act Two. Joan and three other characters from the dystopian present accidentally fall into this future world, where they encounter a society radically different from their own, one without conflict, authority, or attachment to property and individualism.

Through the lens of Joan’s experience, Greenland lays bare the psychosocial and genre-related obstacles that prevent the non-utopian audience from embracing the utopian imagination. In doing so, it reaffirms the necessity of envisioning and striving for a radically transformed future society, even as it acknowledges the challenges inherent in that endeavour. Brenton’s daring theatrical experiment invites viewers to confront their resistance to utopian possibilities and to question the inevitability of the dystopian present.