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You can’t stop the boats: Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea @ParkTheatre

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Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea by Italian playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi and translated by Marco Young, has made a topical return to London at the Park Theatre after playing earlier this summer at the Seven Dials Playhouse. In a week when leaders and leaders in waiting were talking about illegal immigration, it seemed like a topical choice . It also has one hell of an evocative title. The piece opens with Adriano Celantano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol , which sets the scene for what we are about to see. After all, a song about communication barriers seems perfect for a play about people trafficking and illegal immigration. One side doesn’t understand why they happen, and the other still comes regardless of the latest government announcement / slogan .  However, the twist here is that the crossing is undertaken the other way. People are fleeing Europe instead of escaping war or poverty in Africa or the Middle East. It’s set sometime in the not-too-distant future. There is a crisis causing p

Things I have not covered

While waiting for broadband to be connected by Wanadoo (I have been waiting six weeks now), I can confirm that I have yet to cover
  • Seeing Stockard Channing and Aiden Quinn in The Exhonerated. It has an extended run at Riverside studios with a revolving cast. They were fantastic. A brilliant play which is staged as a simple reading telling the true tales of people wrongly sentenced to death in America.
  • Going to the Australian Film Festival at the Barbican and seeing "The Illustrated Family Doctor", "Opal Dream" and "Three Dollars". Of the three, Opal Dream is worth catching. It is set in Cooper Pedy and actually paints the town as a nice place so it was a monumental feat of film-making and storytelling there.
  • Caught Capote which was another great film. After seeing the film one should try to speak for as long as possible like Truman Capote until it drives you and your friends insane. I think it should be a new game.
  • I have written another dirty letter to Wanadoo. I used bigger words like "incompetent" and "fools" and "fraudsters" - sometimes in the same sentence! Can't wait to read what their reaction will be. Pity that I have to still pay for their rubbish service, but we'll see.

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