Eriopis (Stephanie Levi-John) and Polyxenos (Lawrence Walker) are the new kids at school. They’ve been to seven schools in three years. They are hardened to being “refugees from a country that didn’t want us, living in a country who wants us even less”.
They know that the other kids aren’t really interested in them. “We’re us, and you are you,” shrugs Eriopis, hiding her real feelings behind spiky aggression. “Might as well give them a bit of a show,” she says, pointing to us.
In Justin Audibert’s zippy production, neatly designed by Natalie Pryce, we sit at tables, exercise books and pens in front of us, like bored teenagers about to take an exam. Eriopis and Polyxenos move from table to table, putting us on the spot in a set-up that cleverly plays on the idea of them and us.
Holger Schober’s two-hander busts a few myths as it offers two young people struggling both with refugee status and famous parents. Jason was a rubbish dad, preferring to watch the footie on the TV than play with his kids, and now that he’s got a new family, Medea has behaved less like a sorceress and more like any depressed abandoned woman and taken to the bottle.
In Euripides’s play, the children are barely heard; they are voiceless victims. Schober gives them centre stage and a voice, one that speaks for child refugees all over the world looking for a place called home. Eriopis and Polyxenos refuse to be silenced, speaking out even as the darkness claims them.
- At the Unicorn, London, until 25 November. Box office: 020-7645 0560.
