In 2011 it premiered at the Royal Court Theatre receiving positive reviews directed by Jeremy Herrin starring Juliet Stevenson, James Fleet, Lydia Wilson and Johnny Flynn.
It made its Australian debut in 2012 at the Melbourne Theatre Company in a production directed by Matt Scholten and starring Noni Hazlehurst, Andrew McFarlane, Anna Samson, Shaun Goss, Lyall Brooks and Katy Warner.
Kevin, hoping to win a lucrative and high-profile research project for the university, pressurises Diane to tone down her controversial lectures, during which she tries to teach the students to reanalyse accepted views over climate change.
Cassell's daughter Phoebe, an erratic anorexic, is there when her mother meets her new student, Ben Shotter, a fervent environmentalist, and the two are immediately attracted to one another.
Geoff Tordoff, who provides site services for the campus, including security, is of only limited help, seemingly more concerned with turning off Diane's lights than with the threats.
Kevin discovers that Diane has published her research regardless of his pressure, and he summons her to a disciplinary hearing, which she refuses to take seriously: using a small soft toy polar bear as her 'union representative'.
Hearing the family's distress Geoff runs downstairs and administers first aid to Phoebe, admitting to Diane that he and his environmentalist group were the ones sending the threatening messages.