Flight | London Theatre: Stagedoor

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7 December 2020 · Follow on Stagedoor

“First seen at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2017, this intriguing show delivered via headphones to an audience sitting in a wooden booth comes with natural social distancing in place. It’s a live theatre experience that is a cross between a peep show, a graphic novel and a diorama. Inspired by Caroline Brothers’ novel, Hinterland, it follows the travels of two young Afghani brothers across Europe as they plot their journey from Kabul to London. Created by Scottish Vox Motus this is a clever, heart-breaking piece of work that creates both intimacy and distance, and offers new perspectives and a fresh vision on an all too familiar story of refugees risking all for a new life. Good to see the Barbican and the Bridge joining forces for the London premiere of a show that may be small in scale but which looms large in the mind.”

Overview

From a private booth, you’ll be drawn in close to this tale of orphaned brothers and their desperate odyssey across Europe, the action unfolding in an exquisite world of miniatures moving before you.

With their small inheritance stitched into their clothes, young Aryan and Kabir embark on an epic journey by foot from Kabul to London. Braving bustling train stations, hazardous sea crossings and menacing strangers, their heart-wrenching story speaks of terror, hope and survival. Based on Caroline Brothers’ novel Hinterland, Flight mixes timely themes with engrossing images to honour the resilience of refugee children adrift in dangerous lands.

At the Bridge Theatre, our partner venue, you’ll be seated individually and given headphones for this intimate experience staged by Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison (magic and illusions designer, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). As detailed model sets and figures revolve to form gripping scenes, accompanied by enclosing sound and narration, the effect is of a 3-D graphic novel brought to life.