Getting Here

Synopsis

Based on the real stories of families from Portuguese, Polish and Afro Caribbean communities who have moved here from abroad, Getting Here re-enacts the journeys made by boat, plane and train, across countries and continents, from one culture to another. As the audience too moves from one space to another, following the journeys of these men, women and children, we find ourselves asking how would we cope with such a transfer and such a change of world. Do we take our culture with us or adapt to the new one we find? Or do we re-invent our culture once we find ourselves in a foreign place?

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 4 July 2009

We all travel with baggage, lugging things along with us both physically and metaphorically. Ivan Cutting's promenade production teases out the conflicting emotions which underlie any journey and is based on interviews with members of East Anglia's diverse immigrant communities.

For the performances in Isaac's Bar on Ipswich's waterfront the audience is corralled into two rooms and a corridor on the top floor of this Tudor merchant's house. The herding is done by an air hostess; we need to identify our luggage at a touch-down before Stansted. The passengers include a young Portuguese couple.

Caterina is pregnant, eager to start her new life abroad and impatient with any delay. José is more conciliatory, but torn between leaving the fado music he loves and the certainties of the old life on one hand and the chance to prove himself as an individual on he other. Both react badly to the officious air hostess and the blandly authoritarian pilot.

Chara Jackson is ...

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