Crocodile Seeking Refuge: 2 - Softcover

Sonja Linden

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0954691296 ISBN 13: 9780954691295

Publisher: Aurora Metro Books, 2005

Synopsis

This play tells the stories of five individuals seeking asylum in the UK: Zakariya from Darfur; Destin from the Republic of Congo; Jalal from Iraq; Parvaneh from Iran and Marie-Elena from Colombia. Each has been forced to flee their homeland in the face of death, each is haunted in a different way by the past. Finding themselves in situations that veer between the comic and the tragic, they try to make sense of the British way of life. 'Scars are like medals. They show we have taken part in the life.'

About this title

Review:

'Harriet is a lawyer who helps immigrants denied the right to remain in Britain. She is a woman who brings her work home with her, quite literally in the case of refugee Zakariya, who she invites to stay. Her husband isn't pleased. If Harriet's work/life balance is out of kilter, who can blame her? Every day she is confronted with the desperation of people in limbo who, like the crocodile who thinks he can escape the rain by plunging into the river, have escaped the turmoil of their ravaged countries only to arrive in a Britain that is doing its best to keep them out. Sonja Linden's play (and Ariella Eshed's production) cleverly evoke the sense of waiting: the waiting to be let in, the waiting to see the lawyer, the waiting for news of their families back home, the waiting to start living. ' --The Guardian

'Its theme could hardly be more topical, or more powerful -- hope, human resilience and courage are set alongside descriptions of torture and injustice that are deeply affecting.' --The Times

About the Author:

Sonja is an award-winning playwright, whose plays have been produced in London and in regional theatres across the UK as well as the United States and Australia. London productions include Call Me Judas (Paines Plough, Finborough Theatre), The Jewish Daughter, sequel to Brecht's The Jewish Wife (New End Theatre) and The Strange Passenger (Paines Plough, Battersea Arts Centre and National Tour). Crocodile Seeking Refuge is the second play to be inspired by her writing residency at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. Her work there led to her founding iceandfire theatre company in 2003 of which she is the artistic director. The company was launched with the London premiere of her play 'I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda' at the Finborough Theatre which was both a 'Time Out' and 'Metro' Critics' Choice and completed a national tour in 2004. Aurora Metro have also published 'I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda' and 'Who Do We Think We Are?' by Linden.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aurora Metro Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0954691296
• ISBN 13: 9780954691295
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 104