Join our Arts and Climate Gathering
What is the power of storytelling in the climate crisis?
Friday 25 April
2 - 4.30pm
@sohoplace, London
tickets are FREE (limited capacity)
Have you seen Kyoto and are now feeling excited about the arts’ role amidst the climate crisis? Are you an artist, producer, policymaker, activist, scientist or journalist looking to engage in discussion and make connections for future collaborations, and ultimately enable your work to empower the public?
Join Good Chance, the RSC, Rachel Styne and Jessica Foung, the co-producers of the ★★★★★ sell-out hit Kyoto, for this Arts & Climate Gathering, which will bring together people from across the arts and climate spheres, to foster lasting cross-sector connections and inspiring debate around the question, “What is the power of storytelling in the climate crisis?”
The event will feature provocations from key players from across these spheres, including Suzanne Dhailwal (artist, writer and cultural strategist who has led campaigns and artistic interventions to challenge fossil fuel investments in the Arctic and Nigeria), Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson (Co-Artistic Directors of Good Chance and the Co-Writers of Kyoto), and will be moderated by Ankur Bahl (actor, writer and cultural strategist). The conversation will be interspersed with facilitated group discussion and networking opportunities. Watch this space for more speaker announcements coming soon!
Photo by Nicola Young for RSC
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Ankur Bahl, Moderator
Ankur is an actor, writer and culture-sector changemaker.
Ankur's theatre career has spanned performances with DV8, National Theatre, Rifco Arts, RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tara Arts, and Wise Children. His film and TV credits include productions for Apple TV, Disney+, HBO, and Sky. Ankur is also the Associate Director and Writer at VOXED.
Additionally, Ankur advises culture sector clients through Studio Reith and Bloomberg Philanthropies' Digital Accelerator Programme. Previously, Ankur was the Director of Digital Stage & Studio at Sadler’s Wells, and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.
A graduate of NYU, London Contemporary Dance School, SOAS and Northwestern University, Ankur was also a Fulbright and Marshall Scholar. He proudly serves on the Board of Trustees of Paines Plough and co-hosted the podcast Arts Work.
Photo by Phil Sharp
Suzanne Dhaliwal, Speaker
Suzanne Dhaliwal is an artist, writer, and cultural strategist whose work bridges art, ecology, and climate justice discourse. With a background in climate justice and philosophy, Suzanne brings a critical, reflective lens to environmental narratives, using art to challenge dominant paradigms and inspire new cultural responses to ecological crises. Through exhibitions, publications, and public engagement, that explore climate justice through themes such as of biophilia, Suzanne is shaping contemporary discourse on art, environment, and cultural transformation. www.suzannedhaliwal.org/about
Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
Joe Murphy grew up in Leeds and Joe Robertson grew up in Hull. In 2015, they established Good Chance in the ‘Jungle’ refugee and migrant camp in Calais, a space of expression where theatre, art, dance and music could be made. They lived there for seven months until the eviction of the southern half of the camp. Their first full-length award-winning play, The Jungle, based on their experience in Calais, opened at the Young Vic in 2017, before transferring to the West End (2018), New York (2019/2023), San Francisco (2019) and Washington DC (2023). In 2021, Good Chance co-created The Walk, an 8,000km moving festival of welcome from Syria to Manchester with Little Amal, a three-metre tall puppet based on a character from The Jungle.
Their most recent play Kyoto, the gripping political thriller set around the historic 1997 COP3 climate summit, premiered in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2024 as a Good Chance, Royal Shakespeare Company, Rachel Styne and Jess Foung co-production, and has since transferred to @sohoplace on London’s West End to rave reviews and two Olivier Award nominations, including Best New Play.
