Steerage (24:7 Festival)

Steerage; two children, a shipping container, two strangers and one torch.  Welcome to Georgina Perry’s interesting look at the journey of some illegal immigrants to the UK in a shipping container on the dark.

This is a promising production with a strong concept but requires more work to fulfil its potential.  Zead (Assad Zaman Choudhury) is fiercely protective of his younger sister Immy (Catherine Dowling) who does not speak and is intensely afraid of the dark.

An intriguing character shelds much of the power in this setting without realising it however not enough detail is given to really establish the character. 

It is clear that Immy has had traumatic experiences but these are not explored enough or hinted at strongly enough for the audience to develop much feeling towards her and her situation.

Zead on the other hand is well portrayed as a defensive older brother but a much more sinister side to him develops well throughout the piece and much character development is given to him.

The two strangers in the container are an interesting mix. Ibrahim (Ali Gadema) quickly establishes himself as the authority of the group of people and there is clearly much more to him than meets the eye but again, he is given too little an opportunity to establish himself and he needs more time to develop some of the past he hints at prevent the audience from feeling disappointed in the lack of clarity surrounding his motives.

Tamir (Amir Rahimzadeh) is an complex character. He tries to assert his authority but very quickly submits to Ibrahim once he becomes involved and prevents Tamir from taking advantage of the children.  He is deep and brooding, yet reckless and panic filled also. He moves from a position of power to being the weakest person in the pack in the course of the play effectively.

There are feelings and shapes in the dark that sometimes we would rather not think about and seek solace in the light however the demons in this play; real or imagined are not sustained and the initial bang the piece opens with fizzles out despite the strong subject matter.

– Ruth Lovett