Pigfoot Theatre tells us that How to Save a Rock with a Circle is a show about response and solutions, not about disaster - and definitely not about making anything worse. This work in progress show about climate breakdown, devised by the equally convincing Anushka Chakravarti, Lara Deering, Alex Rugman and Nancy Case and movingly directed by Bea Udale-Smith, asked its audience for only one thing: help.

Any potential hypocrisy involved in staging a play about climate change is addressed before you arrive at the venue. All of the promotional material makes it clear that the production is entirely carbon neutral – 'our lights will be powered by solar and bike-power, all sound will be created live, all materials recycled or recyclable'; Pigfoot even offer to off-set our journeys to the venue. The bike itself, ingeniously engineered by Junming Samuel Liu, sits centre stage, a constant reminder that if we want to continue to consume energy, we have to work for it.

To start with, I wasn’t wholly convinced – a series of short scenes hindered the momentum of the opening, and the scatty liberalism of the characters irritated me, though realistically this could only have been because the characterisation was damningly accurate not only of many people I know but, crucially, reminiscent of my own behaviour. But it was this, how intimately the writers and performers knew their target audience, that made the play as strong as it was. With nods to moon cups, Guardian Soulmates, keep-cups and tote bags (and the laughter that accompanied their mention) there was no mistaking my fellow audience-members’ frame of reference.

As the room got colder (there was, of course, no central heating), I warmed to the play’s tone. Where I felt that we were being jolted about a bit in the first twenty minutes, the form settled about half way through and the meta, focus-group element of the piece found its place. The production ended up feeling fragmented in a charming way and as each vignette was knit together, we were presented with a growing patchwork of questions and solutions - it just took a while to appreciate the full picture.

The more poetic passages needed the most work, and it was here that the play’s handmade aesthetic was at its most exposed. The moment where a small, slightly shoddily-made paper boat was carried across the stage may have fallen entirely flat if it weren’t for the authentically beautiful and eerie melody sung in harmony by the cast of four. In fact, the production’s sound design was clever and collaborative, involving the audience in a way that steered well clear of being contrived. Throughout, audience participation was subtly achieved – not in terms of breaking the fourth wall, which was pretty explicit – but the movement towards a feeling of hope evoked in the audience was gradual. We were often cast in the role of protest group – being asked to make noise with passed out cans, to stamp our feet, or hold lightbulbs aloft – and being together in Makespace, performers and audience alike, felt like a truly constructive gathering of like-minded people.

To be grouped together as we were felt like a protest in and of itself, and the concretisation of this gathering via the device of a WhatsApp group was strangely empowering. How to Save a Rock with a Circle was beautiful; charmingly unpolished and genuinely impactful. I can’t wait to see how it grows and develops.