“As if sky was blue”: An Eco-Marxist Reading of Caryl Churchill’s Play Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen

Abstract

Humanity is confronted with a growing array of environmental challenges that demand immediate attention and cannot be disregarded. One of the issues the world faces is air pollution, which presents a significant risk to both the environment and human well-being. The capitalist system has a great impact on the exacerbation of air pollution and environmental deterioration. This impact is reflected in Caryl Churchill’s post-apocalyptic play Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (1971). The play presents a futuristic scenario in which humanity faces grave consequences due to the polluting practices of capitalism and the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. It depicts a future in which environmental degradation drives people to violence and despair. In such a situation, it highlights the need for immediate action on climate change and ecological collapse. This paper draws upon eco-Marxism as a theoretical framework to comprehensively analyse how capitalism extensively exploits natural resources in pursuit of immediate financial gains, hence detrimentally impacting the environment.