Untold Theatre, Yellowbelly Theatre

First there was poverty, persecution and war. People fled for fear, and searched for safety. By 2015, more than one million people had arrived in Europe by boat, rail or road. 5,411 of these were reported dead or missing that same year.

Some were lucky and granted asylum. Others were stranded between borders. Camps were built across the continent.

In 2016 came the closing of borders, armed police, Detention Centres. We built fences. Words like ‘foreign’ began to spread fear. ‘Immigrant’ came to mean parasite. By 2017 Europe had reached breaking point.

It is now 2020. Thousands of people, already displaced, continue to search for home.

Among them is Prospero, and his daughter Miranda. Once powerful in his own country - then overthrown by his brother Antonio - Prospero finds himself stranded on ‘The Island’, a deserted migrant camp. When a passing ship of politicians and dignitaries - amongst them Antonio - ventures close to The Island, Prospero seizes an opportunity for justice by summoning a fearsome tempest.

Set against a backdrop of mass migration and political corruption, fragments of Verbatim Journalism and striking digital projections punctuate Shakespeare’s original scenes.

This production is a collaboration between Untold Theatre and Yellowbelly Theatre - in recognition of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.