Theatre Review – Lampedusa

Last year an estimated 4,000 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea trying to escape hardship or persecution in perilously unsafe boats. Despite the risk and terrifying statistics, thousands of migrants continue to head to the Italian island of Lampedusa, perceived as the gateway to Europe.

Anders Lustgarten’s vital, poignant play explores the perils of deprivation. Stefano (Ferdy Roberts) a former fisherman, serves as a coastguard, retrieving corpses from the sea. It’s “the job no one else will take”.

Running parallel to Stefano’s story is that of Denise (Louise Mai Newberry) who also works in a profession few can stomach. In Austerity Britain, the unemployed have fallen further into debt. Denise, mixed white and East Asian, funds her degree by working as a debt collector for a payday loan company. She is spat upon and sworn at: “Middle-class people think racism is free speech now,” she complains.

Stefano and Denise deal with desperate people and learn humility. They realise that migrants are erroneously lambasted as a drain on resources and welfare scroungers. Both characters start out cynical and prejudiced, but the kindness of strangers helps nurture their compassionate side.

Steven Atkinson immerses the audience in the action. Sitting on uncomfortable wooden benches, surrounded by fellow audience members, we are made to feel as though we are on a boat.

The actors emerge from our midst, reminding us of our shared humanity. Thankfully, this terrific play ends with the redemptive power of hope.

Soho Theatre Upstairs

UNTIL APRIL 26

020 7478 0100

Review originally published in Camden Review

Theatre Review – Shrapnel: 34 Fragments of a Massacre

In December 2011, thirty-four unarmed Kurdish civilians were killed in an isolated mountain village on the Turkish-Iraqi border. The group of traders and their mules had been picked up by a Predator drone. The Americans passed on the intelligence to the Turkish military who, claiming they were terrorists, gave the order to bomb them. Nineteen of the victims were children. The Roboski massacre is the subject of Anders Lustgarten’s compelling political drama, performed in English with Turkish surtitles.

Matching the number of dead, thirty-four short, fragmented scenes are played out on a traverse stage, bare except for a table and chairs. A huge screen dominates the action, depicting the convoy being followed by military drones. They include diesel smugglers Husnu (Aslam Percival Husain) and his fourteen-year old nephew Savas (Josef Altin). Throughout the play’s seventy-five minutes, the ensemble cast share the names of all thirty-four victims of the aerial bombardment. Some, we learn, were teenagers who had engaged in small-scale smuggling to pay for their education.

We’re also shown an arms manufacturer extolling the virtues and profitability of modern warfare and two workers in an arms factory, seemingly unaware that the devices they construct might kill innocent civilians. Two journalists (both played by Karina Fernandez) offer different perspectives on the massacre; one toes the party line, demonising the Kurdish people, the other attempts to report the truth.

Shrapnel is impressively acted and Mehmet Ergen’s gripping production packs a visceral punch.

At Arcola Theatre until 2 April

Box office: 020 7503 1646

Originally published in Camden Review