Not really a play, but a spoken word piece by the Austrian Nobel prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, derived as a response to the 60 asylum seekers being expelled from Austria in 2013 and those who drowned crossing the Mediterranean. It is filled with observations about immigrations, xenophobia and cultural integration and nothing but comprehensive in its coverage. There are important issues to highlight such as the German law restriction on asylum seekers employment. The free form structure of the piece works at keeping up the interest but the lack of structure and coherence soon takes its toll. The piece becomes repetitive just before half way through, leaving a rather long, uncomfortable and slightly too warm hour to fill. There are some well written lines but it is rather like throwing a lot of lines at the audience and hope one or two may stick, it is not the best strategy to entertain or inform. The core cast delivers the lines while holding a script while other parts, played by recent immigrants give a diversity in delivery.It need much work in editing and staging and there is a very good hour piece somewhere in there. I’m looking forward to that.
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