New play Deluge examines people's responses to the climate crisis, coming to The Spring Arts Centre in Havant

It’s just rain, isn’t it? Or is it more evidence that the climate crisis is real?

This the premise of Deluge, a new play written and directed by award-winning playwright Jacquie Penrose for The Bench Theatre Company.

This is Zee and Tony’s house – his sister Caz has arrived unexpectedly. And Irene and Josh seek shelter when their bungalow is flooded. They all camp out in the small upstairs study – to some this feels like ridiculous overkill – to others an essential precaution. And how to look to the future and make rational decisions – when immediate personal issues seem more important.

Jacquie reveals her inspiration for the play came from simply seeing a butterfly in her garden. ‘I got all anxious and upset,’ she recalls, ‘and it occurred to me, why am I get so excited about seeing one butterfly when I'm old enough to remember when the garden was full of them. It was vivid evidence of how far we've travelled downhill within my own living memory.

‘From there I thought instead of whinging about it, why not turn it into a play? Then I was trying to find the right way to tell it – people don't want to go to the theatre for a lecture about climate change – you can open the papers or switch the telly on if you want that.

‘I wanted it to be about people – how we you, us, the people around us, react to what is now an unavoidable problem. People are either ignoring it or trying to deal with it, but even if you're ignoring it you're aware that it's happening. I wanted to put together a group of people who had a different reactions to a crisis, hence the deluge.