Two hundred years (give or take): that’s how long humans have had an idea of the effect of greenhouse gases on our planet. For centuries, and even today, scientists find opposition to their climate anxieties; particularly for Eunice, a female scientist in 1856, whose hypotheses around the greenhouse effect are disparaged as ‘amateur’. Flora Wilson Brown’s The Beautiful Future Is Coming is an ambitious, time-traversing meditation on environmental fears, womanhood and intellectual legacy. Told through three interconnected timelines (past, present and speculative near-future), the play centres on female protagonists grappling with ecological collapse and their role in both resisting and documenting it. The concept is promising and, at its best, the production offers pockets of genuine poignancy.

However, much of the writing leans heavily on exposition, often telling instead of showing. There’s a tendency to presume audience alignment with its ideas, resulting in didactic moments that flatten complexity. Climate themes are introduced with sincerity but not always with the dramatic shape they deserve. Some of director Nancy Medina’s movement decisions and transitions between eras feel perfunctory, sacrificing emotional continuity for intellectual gesture. Earnest, intelligent and intermittently moving, The Beautiful Future Is Coming doesn’t fully realise its ambition. 

The Beautiful Future Is Coming, Traverse Theatre, until 24 August, times vary.