New Donmar Warehouse boss Michael Longhurst said it was “distressing” that he did not have to change a word in the script of Europe 25 years after it was written.
The play, his first production since taking over as artistic director at the Covent Garden venue, tells the story of a pair of refugees whose arrival in a small town is mirrored by the rise of the far-Right.
The play was written by David Greig during the war in Bosnia that forced refugees to flee across the Continent. Longhurst explained how he found it by accident while browsing in a bookshop in New York.
He said: “You read a speech about a border being a magic money line and it just arrests you. We were announcing our season in the week of Brexit and I want to use the Donmar to tell the most relevant and important stories we can so I had to jump at the chance to put it on. David Greig is a prophet and it’s distressing that not a single word has been changed.”
Longhurst added: “The rise of the far-Right through populism is not going anywhere. It’s so terrifyingly happening to us now.”
The director said he invited BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen, who worked as a war correspondent in Bosnia, to speak to the cast during rehearsals. He said: “We heard stories about him being in a lift and it opened and sniper fire went past. It just gave us incredible first-hand experience.”
