The Jungle
The powerful drama about the refugee crisis makes its San Francisco premiere
The Jungle
The Jungle registers with a throbbing authenticity only amplified by the superb performances of the large, multinational ensemble and the virtuosic immersive staging.
Hollywood Review
The Jungle
The powerful drama about the refugee crisis makes its San Francisco premiere
Why see The Jungle?
The Jungle - A Necessary Watch
Following sold out, critically acclaimed runs on London's West End and Off-Broadway, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's fully immersive and deeply moving drama The Jungle makes its San Francisco premiere this spring. Chronicling the lives of displaced refugees who found themselves in the sprawling migrant camp in Calais, which came to be known as the Jungle before it was knocked down by French authorities in late 2016, the heavy-hitting eye-opener of a production tackles a pressing topical issue with intelligence, tenderness and searing insight.
During seven months spent at the camp at the height of its existence between 2015 and 2016, Murphy and Robertson founded The Good Chance Theatre, a company that aims to inspire, empower and connect artists and voices around the world through the sharing of their stories and culture. Working alongside The Jungle's residents and other theater volunteers, the duo created a safe platform for people to express their experiences and reflect on what was happening to them. In the process, they met a myriad people and encountered a tapestry of stories, many of which are woven into the fabric of the play. Through the building of Theatres of Hope in areas where immigrants are having difficulty integrating, as well as the continued production of groundbreaking works, The Good Chance Theatre remains a shining beacon of hope in the bleakest of places.
What Is The Jungle About?
Set in an Afghan Cafe at the heart of The Jungle, the story chronicles the lives that intersect there. A melting pot that thrusts audience members right into the action by placing them around the same long cafe tables that become walkways for the actors, the hub draws refugees from Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Eritrea and Syria amongst other war-torn places. There's Safi, a former literature student from Aleppo who views the camp with an optimistic light, Okot, a young Somali migrant whose harrowing journey casts his new home in a much darker light and Salar - owner of the cafe and camp leader, as well as well-meaning British volunteers that are caught up in the emotional fray. As tensions escalate with the authorities and within the camp itself, the startling tale of resilience poses thought provoking questions about the nature of asylum process, the concept of home and an international crisis that still very much exists, even if The Jungle is no longer operating.
Reviews
Customer reviews
10 reviews, average rating: (3.7 Stars)
Sarah
Really Wonderful
I absolutely reccommend this show, and after seeing it once I plan to go back with as many people as I can convince to go with me. The Jungle pulls off all the cliche things I usually despise in a performance: actors talking with the audience, water onstage, improv , etc. and they not only do these things decently they do them in a way that really makes the play wonderful. I think it manages this partly because of the clear talent of the writers, driector, cast and especially, the set designers, but it also really, really makes a difference that both some of the cast and both writers really lived in the camp this play is based on. When I describe this play as "immersive" I'm not kidding. You are literally onstage with the performers the whole time, but in an organic rather than an akward way. I garuntee you will never see another play like this ever again. So beautiful, and funny, and moving. One warning: the seating varies wildly, wear something you can sit cross legged in. ... Read more
Chloe
Devastating and real
I will remember this production for a long time. At points where we are simply listening to members of the cast - Safi, Okat - tell their stories, these actors hold the audience in such a profound silence you’d think you were in a vacuum. No one moves. It is staged in a way that conversations bloom out of the chaos of lots of people gathered under one roof in such a natural way, it’s as if we were there in the camp with them, hearing these conversations emerge for the first time. No action, save a handful of key high-drama moments, is artificially plumped with extra sound design, and there is little underscoring — but there is some fantastic live music. Clever use of real audio and video from the camp, real bullets sound from the video footage, a call to prayer is played from a phone fully integrated into the scenes. Excellent sound and lighting design. Very fast shifts from emotional highs to crushing lows and back. Your heart will break with them. It was a privilege to witness this. ... Read more
Theater fan
Important and thought provoking
As with few other plays, my overall reaction is to be grateful. I appreciate the attention paid to this story, the energetic acting, and bold set.
Perhaps necessarily given available sources, the script created more complex characters for the social workers and NGO activists than for the actual refugees.
Mostly I wanted more about how the “Jungle†grew and functioned as a community and culture all its own. Instead the play essentially and deliberately dramatizes the chronology of main events that were all covered in the press.
Nevertheless kudos to the playwrights, actors, and theater for staging this.
Also a simple request to the audience to respect the no photo policy — At our performance someone in the very front row pulled out her phone and noisily “clicked†a shot during a quiet scene. Sigh. ... Read more
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