Sam Reuben and the Company of How Not To Drown. Credit Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.Following the break-up of Yugoslavia, Kosovo finds itself mired in ethnic tensions. Families intent on saving their children from mafia gangs, the prevalence of guns and those intent on exacting revenge, entrust youngsters into the hands of people-smugglers and despatch them on perilous crossings of the Adriatic and on into western Europe for safety. Surviving on his wits and tenacity, Dritan spends 4 days being passed from handler to handler and trafficked through boat and train journeys, eventually joining his older brother Alfred at the underwhelming enclave of Ilford, Essex. Still only 17 himself, Alfred has thrived in England by developing his own car wash company, but is considered by Social Services to be too young to look after his 11 year old brother and so begins Dritan's 5 year ordeal being passed from one foster home to another, with only John and Gillian from Gillingham offering a brief respite from the heartless lack of love and affection in the care system. School too, presents the obstacle of ignorant prejudice in both the playground and classroom, compounding the young asylum-seeker’s feelings of alienation, abandonment and anger.
Largely adorned in the internationally recognised refugee chic of trackies, the well-drilled cast (which also includes Ajjaz Awad, Esme Bayley, Daniel Cahill and Samuel Reuben) perform almost entirely atop a small tilted square of wooden planks as they weave in and out of protest barriers and other make-shift devices which serve as props in the telling of Dritan’s story co-written by Nicola McCartney and directed for the stage by Neil Bettles supported with choreography by Johnnie Riordan.
The play is told at a lively pace without an interval, but given the inevitable disconnect experienced by those uprooted from their familiar language, culture and family environment, there’s a bitter sadness in the end result with only momentary bursts of levity and humanity. Perhaps the most telling line from the piece is uttered when Dritan is recounting his rebuffed attempts to build rapport and emotional connection with Brian the paternal head of the foster family with whom he has lived for three years — In my country, we say “If you live with the pig, you learn to love the pig”.
The production which first impressed audiences at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe, continues its run at Stratford East until 11th Feb and then another 6 venues around the country until the beginning of April.
Psychiatric wards have provided a rich source of material for writers and dramatists over the decades, but in a world where our mental health and well-being are discussed and evaluated more openly than at any time in human history, does Nicholas Billon’s psychological drama THE ELEPHANT SONG have anything interesting to say to a modern audience?