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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

The lights are on: hamlet is dead. no gravity. @arcolatheatre


The old keep living and the young are dying. It is all a bit random and unpredictable with these birthdays, deaths and marriages in hamlet is dead. no gravity. It is one of four pieces playing as part of the Volta International Festival at the Arcola Theatre.

The work by German writer Ewald Palmetshofer is both fascinating, challenging and amusing. The work deals with the premise about how people tend to tense up in uncomfortable situations, be it the mother who longs for her mother to be dead, a marriage of convenience, an unexplained death or a brother and sister who seem awfully close. Things gradually build to an unexpected climax.


Sometimes a well-written play just smacks you out of your complacency. It is funny, and there are various scenes where you are reminded that you are watching a play (almost as if the actors are reading the stage directions). But what lingers long after you have left the theatre is how the petty arguments and point-scoring is so important when you have little else to worry about.

It’s an ensemble piece, but each of the cast members gets to shine with their own hilarious monologue, which comes across as if it is a conversation just to you (albeit an awkward one).

The Volta International Festival is an opportunity to bring together award-winning writers from across the world, translating their works into English for the first time.

With a cast of 14 actors staged in both spaces of the Arcola, it is an opportunity for collaboration between award-winning writers from across the world with British artists.

There are four pieces that explore the themes of power, abuse, guilt and memory. Discounts apply if you catch more than one (and it is possible to see more than one piece in an evening).

The four works run through to 19 September however hamlet is dead. no gravity concludes on 12 September.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

Photo credit: Richard Davenport

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