Continuity
Playwright: Bess Wohl
Director: Sahn Millington
New Theatre, Newtown
28 May – 20 June, 2026
A wild roller coaster of hilarious and at times cutting dialogue, Bess Wohl’s Continuity delivers a clever take on how to tell a story while not missing the message, the real message: whether we are sleepwalking into a disaster scenario or if we have what it takes to have a happy ending.
Staged on a Hollywood film set, this hilarious and yet sobering theatrical experience has at its core the idea of “continuity”. It’s a concept explored on many levels, each impacting the other: the art of storytelling, the grind of moviemaking, science obscured by conspiracy, patriarchal control of power.
Wohl’s use of the theatrical device, a film within a play, was inspired by working on a movie set. She realised that in film, continuity is about control, precision and the illusion that nothing changes between takes. This, of course, is impossible as time moves forward and change is inevitable. We are never fully in control of the subtle details. There is slippage. This tension is mirrored in the play’s structure and its characters. Their lives and relationships are anything but stable, even as they attempt to impose order on the chaos surrounding them.
The play’s Hollywood backdrop is a flimsy décor depicting a frozen glacier when, in fact, they are in the sweltering heat of New Mexico. As the characters struggle to keep the film’s details consistent, the world outside the set – both literal and metaphorical – is shifting in ways they cannot control. The production itself feels fragile, and the natural world refuses to be managed, echoing the broader existential anxiety about climate change.
The question at the heart of Continuity is whether there can be any true continuity for humanity in the face of such a crisis or whether we are witnessing the beginning of our own extinction. Are we controlling our destiny or our deception?
Wohl’s writing is laced with humour and deeply human moments, but beneath the surface lies a profound meditation on the limits of storytelling and the responsibilities of artists. The play does not offer easy answers or solutions to climate change. Instead, it asks how we should respond, both as individuals and as storytellers, when confronted with a crisis that feels overwhelming and deeply personal. Can art illuminate the truth without making it more palatable than it really is?
Ultimately, Continuity is a play about the impossibility of perfect control, the inevitability of change, and the urgent, unresolved question of whether humanity can adapt quickly enough to survive. It’s a timely, layered work that uses the language of cinema to ask whether the story of humankind will continue.
