FROM HERE ON
Our TV screens have never been more replete with ‘drama’ – though some might say ‘melodrama’. Netflix and Amazon et al are stuffed to the gills with murder mysteries, ‘psychological thrillers’ and gritty cop shows with their car chases and troubled inspectors. But are commissioning editors looking the wrong way? Should their treatments involve standing on the cliffs of Dover and gazing out to sea? For there stretching beyond the horizon is drama in all its human, messy, tragic, heroic, inspiring, devastating reality.
The stories of refugees whether coming in small boats, big ships, backs of lorries or cargo containers are, or should be, the inspiration for today’s writers. And yet it is rare to see these powerful real-life dramas portrayed except perhaps on stage. ‘From Here On’ – a new show produced by Gecko and Good Chance Theatres – tackles the issue of child refugees with blazing honesty, deeply-held concern and sun-ripened humanity. They have just completed a series of stunning productions held in the ports of Harwich and Dover culminating in several shows at London’s Liverpool Street station. The last venue is carefully chosen: it was the arrival point for most of the 10,000 Jewish children who came to Britain as part of the Kindertransport rescue in 1938-39. Harwich of course was the sea port in which they caught their first sight of freedom.
Combining professional actors with 40 or so young local performers, the result was a stunning physical theatre piece which beautifully told the story of children wrenched from their families and homes by war, brutal oppression and poverty. Against a thrilling soundscape created by Michael Crean with music specially composed by Zac Gvirtzman, the 35-minute production captivated its audience with fluid dance ensembles, moments of familial tenderness and starkly frightening echoes of war. The show begins with what appears to be a statue of little girl in 1930s clothes; she holds a violin and bow, there are suitcases everywhere. A mocking crowd steal the violin from her, make hay with the cases, transform her frozen poses. Language was reduced to fragments of foreign tongues or vocal gestures. Words don’t matter. Actions do.
Photo taken on Harwich beach
Director Amit Lahav marshalled the enormous cast – now marching soldiers, now behatted Jews, now jeering bystanders, now children at play. It was a never-ceasing kaleidoscope of stage imagery. Broad themes around child refugees including the forced recruitment of child soldiers are dealt with great sensitivity. The storylines were not always easy to follow but it didn’t matter a jot. This was a work (supporting Safe Passage) that effervesced with passion and concern. Indeed the two theatre companies do a lot of work with refugees and raising awareness of their plight. Though this is political theatre, the theatricality is never second place.
Though the show has done its UK tour, you can still catch it in The Hague and Berlin. It really would be worth the journey. In fact your journey to a play about enforced journeys could be part of the narrative.
https://www.goodchance.org.uk/fromhereon
