No longer booking
  • Venue @sohoplace Theatre, London
  • Performance dates Booking to 3 May 2025
  • Running time 2 hours 35 minutes (including interval)
  • Age guidelines 12+

Book tickets to new Royal Shakespeare Company production Kyoto in London’s West End.

Olivier Awards 2025 – Nominee

This pulse-pounding political drama transfers to @sohoplace theatre for a strictly limited London season from January 2025.

Breathless and gripping, this new play recounts the fateful hours of tense negotiation which lead up to the historic signing of the UN’s landmark climate conference in December 1997.

Award-winning directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin (Stranger Things: The First Shadow) reunite with writers Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson following their acclaimed collaboration on The Jungle, for new play Kyoto.

Stephen Kunken (A Spy Among Friends, Billions, The Handmaid’s Tale) reprises his celebrated role as American oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman, after making his RSC debut earlier this year.

Kyoto is playing @sohoplace Theatre in London from 9 January 2025 to 3 May 2025.

‘This isn’t negotiation, it’s hand to hand combat.’

11 December 1997.

The Kyoto Conference Centre. 5am.

The nations of the world are in deadlock. 11 hours have passed since the UN’s landmark climate conference should have ended. Time is running out. And agreement feels a world away…

The greatest obstacle: American oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman.

Tensions are high and the stakes are even higher in Kyoto – a sharp, searing and darkly comic story about a moment when the nations of the world took a first, monumental step towards each other.

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Performance Information

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Stars and Creatives

Who is in the cast of Kyoto?

Starring Stephen Kunken as Don Pearlman, Jenna Augen (Shirley Pearlman), Olivia Barrowclough (Secretariat), Jorge Bosch (Argentinian ambassador Raul Estrada Oyuela), Duncan Wisbey (Fred Singer), Nancy Crane (USA), Ferdy Roberts (UK, Prescott, Houghton), Andrea Gatchalian (Kiribati, AOSIS), Togo Igawa (Japan, Ohki), Kwong Loke (China, Zhong), Dale Rapley (Bolin, Santer, Gore), Kristin Atherton (Germany), Aïcha Kossoko (Tanzania), and Raad Rawi (Saudi Arabia, Al Sabban).

The cast also features off-stage covers Karen Barredo, Jeffrey Chekai, Mark Hammersley, and Moe Idris, Sibylla Meienberg.

Who are the creative team of Kyoto?

Written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson

Directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin

Miriam Buether (Set Designer), Natalie Pryce (Costume Designer) Aideen Malone (Lighting Designer), Christopher Reid (Sound Designer), Akhila Krishnan (Video Designer), Gemma Stockwood (Dramaturg), Paul Englishby (Composer) and Julia Horan CDG (Casting Director)

Important Notes

Please note: This production contains explicit language, smoking (cigarettes), flashing lights, loud music and haze.

Venue Information

@sohoplace Theatre , 4 Soho Place, London, W1D 3BG

Nearest Tube or Train: Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square

Nearest Buses: 1, N1, N171, 14, 176, 8, 98

Directions

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Critics' reviews of Kyoto

★★★★★ "An invigorating and challenging piece of political theatre... a fantastic achievement" - What's On Stage (West End)

★★★★ "A taut and gripping thriller" - Evening Standard (West End)

★★★★ "As exciting as it is informative" - Daily Express (West End)

★★★★ "Stephen Kunken is riveting... in this improbably thrilling drama" - TimeOut (West End)

★★★★ "Gripping theatre" - The Times (West End)

★★★★★ "Sheer theatrical magic" - What's On Stage (Stratford-upon-Avon)

★★★★ "Gripping theatre" - The Guardian (Stratford-upon-Avon)

★★★★ "Breakneck pacing and vivid performances" - The Stage (Stratford-upon-Avon)

★★★★ "A rich and vital play about the climate change baddies" - i News (Stratford-upon-Avon)

★★★★ "RSC makes compelling drama out of climate-change crisis" - Financial Times (Stratford-upon-Avon)

★★★★ "A whirligig show about the climate crisis" - The Observer (Stratford-upon-Avon)

Also see: Kyoto Reviews Round-up

Frequently Asked Questions

Kyoto is playing at the @sohoplace Theatre in London
The running time of Kyoto is 2 hours 35 minutes (including interval)
The age recommendations for Kyoto are: 12+
Yes, Kyoto has matinee performances on the following days: Thursday, Saturday
No, sorry, Kyoto has now completed its run and is no longer on sale.

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