A scientist testifies before Congress. Old lovers reunite. A man at the top of the Andes paints the mountaintop white, chasing the receding line of snow. What is the correct response to a world on fire? Originally commissioned by the American Repertory Theater, with the Harvard University Center for the Environment, TIMEBOMB is a new climate change comedy (yep, a comedy) that asks: What do we do now?

From playwright Carson Kreitzer: “This play began with an article about a man in Peru painting the mountaintops white, to slow the receding glacier. Such a beautiful image—at once like a fairy-tale, and resolutely practical. In the time I’ve been researching and writing, the effects of the climate crisis have become starkly more visible. I no longer feel that the purpose of the play is to get the word out, but rather to rally that dogged, jaw-set, goddamn human Hope that we need for this fight.” 

The Funders of the Ruth Easton New Play Series

Actress Ruth Easton (nee Edelstein) was born in North Branch, Minnesota and graduated from North Branch High School. She attended the University of Minnesota for one year and the following year attended Macalester College before finishing her collegiate career at Cumnock School in Los Angeles. She went on to New York where she studied acting with Oliver Morosco. Mr. Morosco opened a stock theater company in upstate New York where Ms. Easton starred in several plays. After performing with other stock theater companies she returned to New York City where she appeared in five Broadway plays over a period of seven years. They included Exceedingly Small, Privilege Car, Town Bay, Buckaroo and Charlie Chan. Exceedingly Small was directed by Ethel Barrymore and Easton played opposite Eric Dressler. New York critics praised her performance as “thoroughly touching” and “highly spirited and excellent.” She starred in radio dramas on the Rudy Vallee Hour and the Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour opposite such actors as Walter Huston, Judith Anderson and Lionel Barrymore. She also appeared with Clark Gable, Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson during the course of her career. Ms. Easton’s legacy, her commitment to theater and the development of new works continues through the charitable gifts made by the Ruth Easton Fund of the Edelstein Family Foundation.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.