Life Raft is undeniably bleak, and at times all seems futile: ‘Let’s row’- ‘Where to?’- ‘To the end.’ There is cynicism, too, as when democracy is dismissed as a system where ‘even idiots get the vote’. But we also see signs of hope for humanity. A key turning point in the play occurs when, driven by superstition, the children decide that their troubles are rooted in the fact that there are thirteen of them. What follows is a kind of dreadful balloon debate, when each of them is urged to justify his or her survival and nominate someone who should not be spared . . . Bleak, yes, but very powerful.