3 – 5 February

This is a story about the kindness of strangers, little acts of kindness which allow us to hang on to the optimism that our lives will improve when we have been forced by one reason or another to leave our homes, our family and country. I say ‘us’ because the journey these young people have been on is one that, in other circumstances, any one of us might be obliged to take.

There is something about a simple story plainly told from the heart and from direct experience, something that engages us in a way only the art of pure fiction can replicate. The same is true of acting; great acting is not required to convey a lived experience when the actor is telling their own story. Here the job of writer and director is to make sure that nothing gets in the way of connecting people and allowing the audience’s natural empathy to engage with the artless honesty of the story-teller.

All The Beds I Have Slept In tells the stories of six refugees in search of asylum. “We come from unfairness”, says one of the characters. The beds in the title refers to the diversity of circumstances in which the people find themselves; a station floor in Nice, a sheet on the ground in Sahara, a public toilet in Turkey or a clean bed in Belgium, the beds are many and various. Stories are told in vignettes of home, of the journey, a sea crossing and life in bedsits where ever vigilant landlords have their fingers on the eviction trigger. But what sticks in the mind and gives hope are those small selfless acts of humanity: the kindness of a border guard in letting the last of a group, the one who was caught, follow their friends, or a Greek prison guard making communal prayer possible. So the stories show us the importance of never losing sight of our common humanity despite the cultural differences that may seem to ‘other’ us and keep us apart. The on-stage action is supplemented by voiced recordings of first-hand testimonies of what it means to be a refugee.

Phosphoros Theatre has been established to tell the stories of refugees and asylum seekers. An asylum is a place of safety, protection and sanctuary and who could not wish that their own country was a beacon for the oppressed? The actors are themselves young people who have made that journey and it is the peculiar power of theatre to make individual the stories that are so easily lumped together and dismissed as, of ‘them’.

Given that this performance was performed by refugees and not professional actors, a star rating would be inappropriate.  

Graham Wyles       4th February 2023