Proportionality

Written and directed by César Valenzuela

Proportionality is a climate-theater show set in the perhaps-not-so-distant future where a geoengineering company, funded by the fossil fuel industry, has built luxurious residences for the ultra-rich (and top-level workers at the company) to live shielded from extreme temperatures. After a party, two employees face the utmost disruption as they seek intimacy: an activist has hacked into the building’s temperature control system, trapping them inside as heat levels rise. Over the course of a spiraling night, the two men are forced to confront not only the activist’s demands, but their complicity in the system—and each other’s moral limits.

*Content warning: this show includes depictions of gun violence, kidnapping/abduction, and misogyny. It also features strobe lighting and other rapid light effects, which may pose a risk to individuals with photosensitive epilepsy or other light sensitivities.

Made possible by support of the Stanford Arts Institute, the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, the Environmental Justice Working Group of the Doerr School of Sustainability, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the student organizations Theater Lab and NExT