Rare Earth Mettle

A strikingly relevant play from Al Smith about climate change and the struggle between science and Silicon Valley in search for the greatest good.

You don’t tell an American to switch off her light; you build her a better light bulb. A leading British doctor with a radical plan to save the NHS and a Silicon Valley billionaire with a radical plan to halt climate change, meet outside an abandoned train on a salt flat in South America. A landscape so bright in its whiteness that it isn’t easy to look at, and so uninterrupted in its flatness there’s no echo. For Kimsa and his daughter who live there, the arrival of these strangers initially seems like an opportunity. Until they both stake their claim on the land, each following their ruthless pursuit of ‘the greater good’. Al Smith's landmark play premieres at the Royal Court following his 2016 hit Harrogate which saw him nominated for Most Promising Playwright at the 2017 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.