THE CONTAINER by Clare Bayley (Theatre Fix). At Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley). Runs to September 18. $29-$44. canadianstage.com. See Continuing. Rating: NNNN
Since premiering in Canada at SummerWorks 2014, Clare Bayley‘s powerful, immersive and hyper-realistic depiction of the horrors of human trafficking in the European refugee crisis has only grown in relevance as the situation across the Atlantic has worsened, making this remount more important than ever.
A unique aspect of the play is that the small audience (seating is limited to 19 people) is sealed inside an actual shipping container for the entirety of the show’s 65 minutes, part of the survival drama unfolding around them. This gives the viewer a powerful first-hand glimpse of the perilous journey and heartrending choices facing desperate people seeking what they hope will be safer lives in the West.
The disturbing narrative involves five migrants: a mother and daughter escaping from an African refugee camp (Bola Aiyeola and Ubah Guled) a businessperson from Afghanistan (Victor Ertmanis) a female teacher also from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban (Lara Arabian) and a Kurd attempting to re-enter England after being deported once already (Adriano Sobretodo Jr.). Each has paid a shadowy agent from Turkey (Constantine Karzis) considerable sums to smuggle them illegally into England.
Sealed for days in the dark container with scant supplies while a flatbed truck transports them through Italy and France toward the tunnel to the UK at Calais, the five spar over resources, wrestle with their fear of being caught by the authorities or abandoned by their unreliable handlers, and slowly reveal distressing episodes from their pasts as well as their hopes for the future.
Among the uniformly strong cast, Arabian’s brave teacher and Karzis’s smooth-talking but terrifyingly manipulative agent stand out. Much of the action is illuminated only by LED flashlights held by the cast, and this effect is augmented by a surround-sound design that features the constant hum of the truck’s engine, passing highway traffic and, at a few points, the ominous noise of the rig coming to an unexpected halt.
It’s easy to lose yourself in the performance and share the fear, frustration, confusion and desperation of the characters, and that experience sticks with you long after you have the luck to exit the container.
