"Until the inevitable, there is a lot of money to be made.”  
Bud in Smokescreen
 

Inside fortyfivedownstairs’ black box was a humble set consisting of two chairs around each side of a table and a liquor cabinet. Sat on one of the chairs was a man, Glen (Christopher Samuel Carroll) is smoking a cigarette, awaiting the arrival of tobacco adman Bud (Damon Baudin). This simple set is accompanied by a simple concept: two admen—one who works for the tobacco industry, the other for a massive oil company—discuss the direct impact their work has on public health and the environment. Smokescreen (2025), written and directed by Carroll himself, sparks a powerful conversation on the hidden role of advertising in creating denial around the consequences of capitalism in its contributions to climate change.

Despite the simple visual elements, the cigarettes and alcohol consumed by Glen throughout the performance and denied by Bud, were masterfully done, being the only props evident on stage. Their consumption of alcohol and cigarettes relays their dynamic to the audience: who currently has the upper hand in the awareness of the harms of their products and who is cynical enough to be okay with it. In this world, being at ease with the unethical nature of your work is what puts you ahead. The simplicity of the set design and props allowed space for the complicated nature of the messages the play is trying to convey, focusing on substance over style.

A lot of focus was instead placed on the script, which was one of the strongest parts of the performance. While I initially thought the play being set in 1977 was more of a stylistic gimmick, a monologue by Glen made the choice more meaningful—seeing his incomplete knowledge of the potential future harms of climate change makes the audience realise how cataclysmic our current situation is. His lack of understanding of the future consequences of climate change and his descriptions of natural disasters seemed like a dystopian nightmare, but it is one we are living in now. When scientists estimate the years we have left before the change is irreversible, we don’t realise how soon it is until someone from 1977 says that we only have 50 years left, leaving us with only 2 years. Endless monologues between the two characters for over an hour sounds like it would be a bore, but it strangely wasn’t because of the dynamic nature of their conversation and the actors’ delivery.

Much of the success of the play is on the actors’ performances and this was harboured by Carroll’s strong and intentional directing. Carroll, with minimal props and a barebones set, did the most he could do with what he had. Their movements were precisely chosen, conveying their current position of power in the dynamic and their internal state. The intensity of the show did not follow a normal three-act structure, rather it went up and down throughout as the actors changed their tone and position on the stage to reflect that. This is the core of what kept the play interesting and engaging. 

However, especially during the beginning of the performance, the actors rushed through their lines, not giving their words enough space. The entire performance relies on the writing and directing, it’s a piece that serves to send a message more than to entertain which is why it is particularly important for the actors to say their lines clearly. While I understand this could be due to the nerves of opening night, I hope it doesn't remain the same for the entire run of the play. There were also some noticeable accent slips, which took me out of the immersive experience of a black box theatre from time to time–but it was more funny than it was disruptive. 

Enlightening and evermore relevant, Smokescreen places itself inside the conversation around climate change, telling it from the side of the perpetrators rather than the victims. It unveils backdoor conversations exposing capitalism as the cause and most definitely not the solution.

Smokescreen performed in fortyfivedownstairs’ black box theatre from 8 July until 13 July.