A group of actors gathers on a stage. They play the all-female government of an imaginary nation. In light of the looming threat posed by an enemy country that is increasing its nuclear stockpiles, the government assembles in its Peace Room – so named as an inversion of Dr. Strangelove’s War Room, because here, peace is preferable to war. In considering whether to proceed with their plans for unilateral disarmament, the government consults with female experts: real-life specialists, defense advisers, soldiers, lawyers, peace activists, humanitarians, and politicians. As they exchange ideas about war, security, and inequality, their discussion ranges across the global emergencies of our patriarchal world. Tensions escalate with the enemy nation: the country’s leader is a man obsessed with the size of his rocket, and he seems determined to prove that his big red button really works. Two Minutes to Midnight is the final stage of a four year transdisciplinary series: ‘What if Women Ruled the World?’
