Theatregoers pay to get locked inside a freight container
A 40ft freight container, the sort you see trundling around on the backs of lorries, will be plonked outside the Young Vic theatre in London next week. It will stand there for a fortnight, acting as the hottest, sweatiest, darkest, most intimate theatrical space in the UK, home to Clare Bayley's play The Container, which won awards at Edinburgh in 2007.
The Container tells the story of five migrants – two Afghans, two Somalis and a Turkish Kurd – who are crossing Europe, accompanied by a Turkish trafficker and an unseen lorry driver. Their hoped-for destination is the UK, land of dreams. But they are experiencing only nightmares: the grim memories of what drove them from their homes, the stench of the container, and the fear of an unknown future.
The container is not just the set, but the theatre itself; the audience of 28 will sit on boxes inside as the action goes on around them, and the only lighting will come from torches carried by the actors. A few extra ventilation holes will be drilled; the Young Vic doesn't want the audience passing out. Recreating the smell of excrement would have been too overwhelming, says Wright, but the heat, darkness, smell of sweaty bodies and claustrophobia will make the experience real enough.
The Container tells the story of five migrants – two Afghans, two Somalis and a Turkish Kurd – who are crossing Europe, accompanied by a Turkish trafficker and an unseen lorry driver. Their hoped-for destination is the UK, land of dreams. But they are experiencing only nightmares: the grim memories of what drove them from their homes, the stench of the container, and the fear of an unknown future.
The container is not just the set, but the theatre itself; the audience of 28 will sit on boxes inside as the action goes on around them, and the only lighting will come from torches carried by the actors. A few extra ventilation holes will be drilled; the Young Vic doesn't want the audience passing out. Recreating the smell of excrement would have been too overwhelming, says Wright, but the heat, darkness, smell of sweaty bodies and claustrophobia will make the experience real enough.
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That sounds like a crazy way to experience theatre! I bet the experience of being locked inside a container in the heat will be enough to push some people over the edge. Sounds quite intriguing... I kinda want to check it out, as I think human trafficking is a serious problem that doesn't get enough attention. But at the same time (and at the risk of inappropriately trivializing trafficking) I feel like I can have a similar experience of heat, darkness, sweaty bodies and claustrophobia if I ride the tube during rush hour.
