Robert Tanitch reviews The Jungle at Playhouse Theatre, London, WC2
The refugee crisis is a humanitarian catastrophe and the play is a cry for humanity and help.
The Jungle was the name given to the unofficial refugee and migrant camp outside Calais which was bulldozed in 2016.
Upwards 6,400 people (25 different nationalities) were stuck in an appalling shanty town, waiting to come to England and seek asylum.
Alex Lawther in The Jungle
Authors Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson lived in the camp for seven month and they built a theatre, a neutral space where everybody was welcome, where people could meet, discuss, sing, dance and tell stories.
They called the theatre Good Chance. The name was based on the odds so many people were thinking and hoping, “Tonight there is a good chance I shall go to England.”
The immersive production by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin is a joint effort of The Young Vic, the National Theatre and Good Chance.
The Jungle premiered at The Young Vic and has now transferred to the West End. The stalls in The Playhouse Theatre have been ripped out and seating has been reduced to 450.
Designer Miriam Beutair has recreated the Afghan restaurant that was in the camp. The audience in the stalls sits on benches at long tables between which there is a raised platform on which the cast perform.
The dress circle has been renamed The White Cliffs of Dover and here the audience looks down on the action. If you are in the stalls you are right in the middle of the action.
The Jungle begins with threats of bulldozing the camp and ends with the threats being carried out. In between there are scenes giving brief glimpses of what life was like there.
A cast of 23 includes the restaurant owner (Ben Turner) who refuses to budge in the face of the bulldozers; a 17-year-old lad (John Pfumojena) relates his horrific experience and a gap- year student (Rachel Redford) who tries to help him.
Ammar Haj Amhad is the chief narrator and Alex Lawther is a well-meaning 18-year-old Etonian volunteer who wants to build houses.
Daldry and Martin’s staging give Murphy and Robertson’s documentary its constant and involving energy.
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