“IT’S ‘Twelve Angry Men’ – with teenagers,” Canberra Youth Theatre director Luke Rogers says of Dawn King’s “The Trials”, the hot-topic play to which he’s just snared the Australian performing rights.

King’s new play, first staged last year at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in Germany, is a debate about the climate crisis and Rogers also sees parallels in the Nuremberg trials, where people said things like, it was fine then. “The play shows how complicit we all are, and nobody gets off scot-free,” he says.

Rogers’ comparison is, of course, to Reginald Rose’s famous play “Twelve Angry Men”, made into an even more famous film in 1958 starring Henry Fonda and like the film set in a stiflingly hot room, the result of global warming.

My curiosity piqued, when I meet two of the 12 very angry teenagers (think Greta Thunberg) in the cast, I ask whether, as in Rose’s play, each of the jurors has a different personality. 

Actors Matthew Hogan and Tara Saxena are quick to confirm what Rogers says.

“It’s like a jury room” Tara says, “but a bit apocalyptic, so an apocalyptic jury room somewhere in the near future.”

Set about 20 years from now, the three defendants on trial for their part in climate change, are played by adult actors Elaine Noon, Zsuzsi Soboslay and Michael Sparks. They’ve been charged under a law where anyone born before October 8, 2018, can be selected for trial based on an economic threshold and carbon footprint. Down-at-heels derelicts are unlikely to be tried.

There’s no judge, but the three defendants are allowed their speeches of justification.

“But it’s very stylised; it’s not at all legalistic… It’s very basic English and I’d say it’s how we’re talking now,” Tara says.

“The end of the play is a bit up in the air as the defendants walk out sadly.” 

Sadly, because if found guilty of the heinous global crimes of which they are accused, the punishment is death. 

“Our characters definitely have different personalities,” Tara says. 

“I play the Henry Fonda character. [Juror 8, supporting the “not guilty” case]. I think my character Maia is the voice of reason. I’ve got strong opinions that they’re all not guilty, but I’d say that I’m a difficult character… I put too much pressure on the other jurors and I cross the line.”

Matt plays Tomaz, of whom he says: “I couldn’t care less what happens, I’m pretty much lazy. I want to mess around and I just don’t want to be there. The others are in constant tension, but not me.”

But, he says, his polar opposite is Noah, who thinks everybody is guilty – he’s very aggressive to Maia. 

It’s not all black and white though, Matt says. One of the best-drawn characters, he says, is Gabi. She’s on the side that believes they’re all guilty and backs Noah, showing no sympathy for the adults and also crosses the line. 

“Remember, all the characters are young people and what Gabi says can happen with kids,” Tara says. “Kids can’t hold their tongues in the way that adults can.”

“The Trials” is a tightly scripted play, divided into three parts or “deliberations”, with lunch in between. 

It’s a long day, it’s crushingly humid and a lot happens, Matt and Tara say, so that will challenge audiences.

“We’ve been asking ourselves which character the audience will hate the most,” Tara says. 

“One person who came to a reading told us that they hated everyone. 

“But it’s great the way it’s been written, just like real people talking and not too complicated. 

“It’s such an acceptable way to reflect on questions of global warming… it’s a bit of an eye-opener and it certainly changed my opinions about climate change.”

The target audience is 13+ and it might not be good for little kids, but for teenagers, fine, they say. But above all, it’s for the guilty ones, the adults.

“The Trials”, The Courtyard Studio, May 19-28.