Birds of Passage – Drayton Arms Theatre

This is a new play with contemporary resonance. It takes place on the fictional Greek island of Zandros, where Emma, Bill and Sandra have been booked in to a beautiful hotel overlooking the sea. They notice a strange-looking concrete building in their sightline, which did not feature in any of the holiday company brochure pictures. It turns out to be a reception/detention centre for refugees who arrive by sea, and it’s not long before they come face-to-face with the exacerbated refugee crisis, which upsets their holiday plans and changes their lives.

Initially, the play is slow to get going with the characters appearing to be rather one-dimensional, and the dialogue rather stilted. However, as the plot develops it becomes more engaging, with the characters having to react to the developing situation. Just before the interval an unexpected twist sets up for a very engrossing second half.

The acting was mixed. Jerome Kennedy was excellent as Jusef, the “refugee”, whose back story turns out to be rather more complicated than he originally describes. Jan van der Black made the most out of his role as an archetypal bigoted British tourist, and Maggie Daniels was a good foil as his long-suffering wife. Overall, I felt that the play could have done with rather more pace and more attack from the actors, but all of them developed their characters very nicely and the ending was a suitable mix of resolution and pathos.

The play was very simply set in the Drayton Arms performance area, with only a couple of simple bistro style table and chairs as sets. Director Penny Gkritzapi made good use of the playing area. There were a large number of short scenes which take place in various locations in and around the hotel and beach. A good effort was made to make the action as continuous as possible, but this was not helped by the fact that the actors had to leave the playing area through some rather ungainly black curtains at the back and sides. I particularly liked the introduction of various scenes by the characters reading from the idealised holiday brochure.

It is good to see a play address the troubling and urgent modern problem of the refugee crisis amidst burgeoning mass tourism, and I hope that it will be performed many more times.

Birds of Passage is playing at the Drayton Arms Theatre until 15th March. Tickets are available from https://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/birds-of-passage.

Reviewer: Paul Ackroyd

Reviewed: 11th March 2025

North West End UK Rating: