The Container
Young Vic in association with Amnesty International
Contents
Page number
1. Introduction
2
2. The Container Synopsis
3
3. The Container Cast List
6
4. The Container Rehearsal Diary
7
5. Interview with the writer, Clare Bayley
16
6. Interview with Abhin Galeya, Playing Jemal
18
7. Interview with Mercy Ojelade, Playing Asha
19
8. Interview with Chris Spyrides, Playing The Agent
21
9. Drama Exercises
22
10. Drama Lesson Plan
35
11. Amnesty International
39
12. Asylum
40
13. Afghanistan
45
14. Somalia
52
15. Turkey
57
16. Amnesty International Lesson Plans
61
17. Appendix 1: The Declaration of Human Rights
63
18. Appendix 2: Resource Material
65
19. Appendix 3: Extract from The Container
71
If you have any comments or questions about this Resource Pack, please contact us:
The Young Vic, 66 The Cut, London SE1 8LZ
T: 0207 922 2800
F: 0207 922 2801
E: info@youngvic.org
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The Container
Young Vic in association with Amnesty International
Written by Tom Wright with support from Amnesty International.
© Young Vic 2009
First performed at the Young Vic on 15th July 2009
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The Container
Young Vic in association with Amnesty International
1. INTRODUCTION
In 2007 The Container, by Clare Bayley, was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2009, it was restaged by the
Young Vic and Amnesty International.
The play told the story of a group of asylum seekers being smuggled across Europe and into the UK inside a locked
shipping container. The production took place inside a real container parked outside on The Cut with a small
audience locked inside for the duration.
This resource pack is designed to accompany the film of the production which is available to watch on request1. The
pack contains insights into the creative process behind the production, with interviews and practical exercises you
can use in Drama lessons, as well as background material and lesson ideas which can be used to explore the issues of
the piece in PSHE.
Please contact the Young Vic Theatre to find out more about this: Alexandra Brierley – Schools and College
Projects Manager.
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2. SYNOPSIS
Scene 1
A group of asylum seekers are locked inside a shipping container, on the back of a lorry, driving through Europe,
hoping to make it to the UK in order to claim asylum. They are a Somali woman, Fatima; her young ‘daughter’,
Asha; Afghan businessman Ahmad; and a young Turkish Kurd, Jemal. They have been travelling for a number of
days with no food and little water. With only torches to see by, they have no idea where in Europe they are, or even
whether it is day or night. Tensions are already forming between them.
The container stops and they hide, fearing that the vehicle may be searched by the police and hoping that it is the
agent, who they paid to smuggle them into Britain, finally bringing them the food he promised. Instead, the door is
opened and a young Afghan woman, Mariam, is thrown on board. The door is locked behind her and the lorry begins
to move again.
Fatima, Ahmad and Jemal try to get food and information from Mariam; when it is revealed that she is from
Afghanistan, Ahmad tries to use her as an ally against the others. It is evident that there has been a lot of bickering in
the container on the journey so far. Mariam tells them that they are in northern Italy, about to enter France, meaning
they only have two or three more days to go. She gives them what little food she has.
Fatima talks about how wonderful the UK and London will be, where she will be re-united with her son. Jemal pours
scorn on her dreams. Ahmad reveals that he left Afghanistan because the fighting there has made it impossible to run
a business. He asks why Mariam is travelling alone; she tells him her husband was killed. She has been feeling
increasingly unwell and vomits; Ahmad and Fatima are terrified of being infected and furious with her for bringing
illness into the container. Asha is the only one who goes to help her by cleaning her up. Fatima orders her to stop
and hold up the cloth to hide Fatima while she uses the bucket which is all they have by way of a toilet. Ahmad and
Jemal go to sleep complaining of the stink of vomit and excrement.
Scene 2
A light flashes on in the darkness; Asha is shining it on Mariam, everyone else is asleep. Mariam wakes up and the
two talk. Asha tells her that Fatima is her Auntie, not her mother; she travels with her because her parents died and
her elder sister, Salma, was raped and killed by men with guns. Salma left behind a young baby but Asha was unable
to keep it alive. She explains that she is very quiet when Fatima is awake, but while she is asleep she goes through
people’s belongings: Jemal has food, Ahmad has money and Mariam has a gun. She has also guessed that Mariam is
pregnant, rather than ill. Mariam is scared that the others will learn her secret and Asha placates her by revealing a
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secret of her own: a tribal leader has given her a letter to the Queen of England recommending Asha for a position as
a servant.
Though not wishing to undermine Asha’s naïve faith, Mariam encourages Asha to think beyond being a servant and
to focus on getting an education. Mariam and her husband were teachers. They taught girls until the Taliban found
out and executed her husband. She carried on teaching the girls in secret but again the Taliban found out and she fled
before they could kill her. She tells Asha that this is why it is important for girls to study and that in the UK she will
get an education.
Jemal suddenly reveals that he has been listening to some of the conversation and mocks Asha for her dream of
working with the Queen of England. Ahmad wakes too and also makes fun of her. Finally Fatima wakes up and the
two men agree that they won’t reveal to Fatima their knowledge of the letter, at least for a while.
Fatima and Jemal start to argue; she accuses him of being in league with the agent since he speaks the same language
(Turkish) and knows a lot about the journey to the UK. He reveals that his knowledge comes from two previous
attempts to enter the UK, and that he hates the Turks for oppressing the Kurdish people.
The lorry suddenly stops; again, some of them fear capture. Mariam was caught in a previous lorry and almost
forced into prostitution, and she begins to panic. The door opens and the agent arrives with water. His speech is
confusing, but gradually the travellers realise that something is wrong. There is a problem with the driver - he is
worried about the huge fines or prison sentence which EU countries give to people-smugglers. Finally the agent tells
them that they must pay the driver $50 each or be left behind. Ahmad caves in first and pays but the others refuse.
Jemal persuades the agent to leave so he can get the money from the others.
With the agent gone, Jemal explains that if one of them were to leave the container, that person might be seen,
placing all of them in danger. Fatima pays for herself but forces Asha to beg Ahmad and Jemal to pay for her. They
accuse Fatima of having enough money to pay, but she says she gave away her last valuable item, a ring she had
hoped to give to her son, in return for safe passage out of Somalia. Finally, Jemal cracks and pays, saying he has a
wife and young daughter in the UK and has to get back to them.
Now they turn to Mariam; she has no money either. Jemal either can’t pay, or refuses to pay again, and Ahmad
continues to refuse, even though they all know he has the money, saying that they should leave Mariam behind so
she can be treated at a hospital. Jemal grabs Ahmad, ready to hit him, but Mariam intervenes.
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Young Vic in association with Amnesty International
When asked if she has anything of value, Mariam takes out the gun. Ahmad panics and for a moment she is tempted
to turn the situation to her advantage, but instead she gives the gun to Jemal and asks him to offer it to the agent in
exchange for her passage.
The agent returns and is unimpressed with the gun. He suggests that instead Mariam pay the driver in a different
way; ‘You are a refugee woman. You know how to pay.’ Asha reveals that Mariam is pregnant. Everyone is
horrified, but the agent says that it doesn’t show. Mariam is finally forced to beg Ahmad to pay for her but he still
refuses. Asha declares that Fatima still has the ring for her son and begs her to give it for Fatima. Fatima claims that
Asha is insane. Finally, Mariam is forced out of the container.
Asha becomes extremely distressed, confusing Mariam with her sister, Salma, and blaming Fatima, who suddenly
slaps her. Asha goes on to say that Fatima’s son abused her, and that Fatima only keeps her as a servant. Finally,
Jemal manages to calm Asha down by reminding her of her letter to the Queen and her future in London. She falls
asleep, exhausted.
Jemal goes to listen at the door of the Container and hears Mariam scream. He pounds on the door but Ahmad
restrains him and reminds him of his need to get to England. Jemal gives in.
Scene 3
Some time later the agent has entered and given them food. He explains that the container is going to be put on the
Eurostar and tells them what they must do when they arrive in the UK; claim asylum from the first person they see
and make sure that they give no details of their journey. As he is leaving Asha stops him to ask what happened to
Mariam. He tells her not to worry about it and leaves, locking them in.
Jemal tells them the agent is right; they have to be careful what they say to UK immigration. He grew up in the UK,
but was sent back to Turkey because it was deemed safe for Kurds. He struggled to get back to his young family but
each time was sent back. This time he will claim to be from Iraq and will enter that way.
They hear clanking. They sit and wait. Are they on the Eurostar, heading to the UK? Or have they been left
somewhere, locked in, to starve to death?
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Young Vic in association with Amnesty International
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Young Vic in association with Amnesty International
3. CAST LIST AND CREATIVE TEAM
Cast
Amber Agar
Mariam
Doreene Blackstock
Fatima
Abhin Galeya
Jemal
Mercy Ojelade
Asha
Hassani Shapi
Ahmed
Chris Spyrides
The Agent
Creative Team
Writer
Clare Bayley
Director
Tom Wright
Designer
Naomi Dawson
Sound Designer
Adrienne Quartly
Producer
Debra Hauer
Dialect
Fight Director
Jeff Daniel
Alison DeBurgh
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4. THE DIRECTOR, TOM WRIGHT’S REHEARSAL DIARY
Prelude
A little over two years ago I was e-mailed a script, The Container, by Clare Bayley. The producers were looking for
someone to direct the show for a four week run in the Edinburgh Festival, had heard of my work, and invited me to
interview for the job. As I read the piece I became steadily more excited. It was an incredibly exciting thriller, one of
those locked room, hyper-intense stories where you are never sure who’s lying, who really has the money, who
really has the gun, and more importantly who, when it comes down to it, will make sacrifices for others and who will
do anything to save their own hide. I raced through it to find out what would happen next. It was only when I’d
finished that I realised that the piece had brilliantly explored the politics of asylum; the way in which ‘Fortress
Europe’ makes it illegal for would be asylum seekers to enter the country, and making those who were already
victimised and abused, fleeing imprisonment, torture, rape and death, to become criminals and to entrust their lives
to criminals.
The producers explained that they had a number of possibilities in Edinburgh, from playing it in a theatre to staging
it in the back of an actual lorry. I said that the only way the piece seemed to make sense was if everything was real;
if we were in a real container, the only light we could see was from the torches the asylum seekers would have and
the only sounds we would hear would be sounds of the truck moving and passing traffic. Fortunately, it turned out
that was how Clare had always envisioned it and I was offered the gig.
I rang designer Naomi Dawson, with whom I had worked with a number of times, and we set to work. When I
visited her studio we sat around on plastic crates (there was a stack of them in the yard outside, left by a previous
occupant) and we debated what the audience should sit on – should they move around? Should they have proper
seats? Then we looked down and we had our answer. We would put the audience on plastic crates along the long
walls of the container, with the actors having their own boxes interspersed with the audience, and with bigger spaces
near the door and rear of the container where they could stand without blocking anyone’s view.
It involved a lot of gambles. We checked out a shipping container, but there was no way of being sure that the actors
would be heard at the far end without deafening the audience nearest to them, or if the audience would be able to see
okay, with such a strangely shaped space, or if torch light would be enough to see what was going on.
One of my favourite ideas was using ‘real’ smells. Every character who enters the container talks about the stench
and during the play they comment on the smell of excrement and vomit. I grew up in York, where, at the Jorvik
Viking Museum, you could experience the smell of a communal latrine, so I knew it was possible. After a while I
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tracked down a company who made smells and was soon the proud owner of two spray cans, one marked
‘excrement’, one marked ‘vomit.’
The cast and crew were sceptical so one day, early in rehearsal, I took out one of the cans and sprayed it to show that
it would be fine to use in such an enclosed space. Everyone paused, sniffed, and, after a second’s delay, started to
wretch. Not only did the spray smell not so much like vomit as pure, distilled evil in a can, but it did not disperse. It
stayed put. We lost a day’s rehearsal waiting for the stench to clear. So sadly, smells, other than the natural
accumulation of stale sweat, were dropped from the production.
My other ideas, I was relieved to discover, worked. The torches bounced off the low steel roof to create a general
cover of light and the action was clearly visible once your eyes adjusted, although it was a big demand on the actors
to perform while both lighting the show and being dazzled by each other’s torches. The sight lines pretty much
worked, and the sound of the truck moving, brilliantly designed by Adrienne Quartly was very persuasive. The
performances more than did the script justice; we sold out and we won two awards; a Fringe First and an Amnesty
International Freedom of Expression Award.
Then the waiting began; it was always going to be a challenge getting a show with 28 seats and 6 actors funded (it’s
almost impossible to break even at those odds) for a transfer. If we played the piece in a theatre our money worries
disappeared instantly. But I’d done a lot of research into the horrors asylum seekers face to cause them to flee, the
horrors they face on the road, and the horrors we make for them when they arrive. Yes, we could probably get a
stage piece on with ease, and it would enable us to entertain and inform hundreds of people. But I had seen people in
Edinburgh, weeping, telling me they would never view asylum in the same way again. Something about locking the
audience in the same space as the characters increases the empathy until you are not just informing people, you are
changing them into ambassadors, people who will go out and speak up for asylum seekers when political parties
suggest we should shoot down boats carrying them over the channel. And so the play stayed unperformed.
Finally however, the Young Vic and Amnesty International joined forces, along with my own company, Meeting
Ground, and with the help of sponsors and grants we were able to get the project confirmed, along with a series of
workshops bringing local students into our rehearsals and a plan to film the production and make it available to
schools nationally via the internet.
Naomi and I tinkered with the set a little, to improve the site-lines, Clare and I revisited the text and managed to
clarify some parts of the story and cut ten minutes from the running time, and we assembled the cast; three were
new, three from Edinburgh. And then came the rehearsals:
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Week One
I think it was Peter Brook who said, ‘The point of day one of rehearsals is to get to day two.’ It’s true; there’s a lot of
meeting people, bringing the cast together and establishing a shared language, so that by day two you can calm
down, focus, and get on with the work. So we went one step further. We went on an outing.
I’m not sure where the shipping yard was, but it involved meeting at Liverpool Street station, losing some members
of the cast, reconvening at another station via tube, taking an overland, several taxis, until we were standing in a pile
of rubble and refuse, looking at a container. We clambered in to a 40’ steel box and noted the feel of the corrugated
walls, the slight echo (it was completely empty), the way a footstep vibrated the whole container, the vague smell of
damp. Then we shut the doors and noticed the complete darkness. I asked the actors to decide on an area to sleep in,
to develop a sense of how, in complete darkness, surrounded by strangers, you want to know exactly where they are,
and where your stuff is. We then tried moving, torches in hand, while I banged on the side of the container so the
cast could get use to the sound and vibration of a ‘moving’ container. After 15 minutes or so they were already
starting to get a bit jumpy and claustrophobic (at the start of the play the characters have been in there for three or
four days and have another two or three ahead of them before they reach the UK.) It was at this point that we
discovered the stage management team, who were waiting outside the container, couldn’t get the door open. While
they ran to get help you could feel the panic mount, the urgent need to get out. When the door was finally opened
(with a satisfying ‘clunk’) we were blinded by the day light and the sudden rush of air - which is exactly what the
characters experience.
By the time we get back from the container site and settle in to our rehearsal room near the Elephant and Castle, the
cast are all getting on well and there’s only time for a few exercises before the end of the day.
Many directors begin with a read through; I don’t like them as they encourage actors to double guess what their final
performance would be like. The first week is too soon for performing, when we haven’t understood the piece yet.
Instead I started with games.
On every production I pick three or four exercises or games which I think we will create a shared language for the
piece. I’m often thinking about things I will need in order to shape the piece effectively in the final weeks of
rehearsal. For this project, I picked a warm up based on being able to project voices in the 40’ of the container and
especially focused on clarity. We performed a physical warm up and one of my favourite ‘playful games’ each day,
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to remind us to keep an open and playful attitude to the work. We did this each and every day right through to the
opening week. (See Chapter 5 for details.)
But the key exercises I introduced during the first week were ‘Scales of Performance’ and ‘Tension States.’ (See
Chapter 5 for details on how to use these.) Scales of performance would be relevant in that we had to find a way of
not swamping or over-powering the audience who are sat inches away from us, but at the same time making the
detail of our work clear for those 40’ away. Tension States are a great way of shaping drama to make sure that the
emotional temperature doesn’t peak too soon or that key moments are really clear to the whole audience.
Having been introduced to these exercises, the cast then spent the rest of the afternoon having sessions with our
voice coach, Jeff, so that we could get a handle on the various dialects in the piece as quickly as possible.
The next day we had divided the room pretty much in half; one side featured a table with a lot of large sheets of
paper blu-tacked onto a nearby wall, and several research books strewn around. The other half of the room was free
of furniture and clutter. For the rest of the week we alternated between the open half for warm ups and exercises, so
that Tension States and Scales of Performance seemed more natural, and ‘brain work’ around the table.
One of the problems inherent in being an actor is that the first moment you read the script, in our case before the first
audition, you are reading not in order to understand the play, but to try to imagine what your performance will be
like on stage. This means you will miss lots of important details which an objective reader will spot automatically.
You will also, unless you are incredibly strict, judge your character against the kind of role you would like to be
playing; if you like to play a hero you are going to look for the hero in your character, for example. As a director, my
job is to get the playwright’s story to the audience as accurately and engagingly as possible. At least half of the work
therefore is ensuring that the cast and I have understood the story we are telling and are not distorting it. Once we
have done that then, and only then, we can apply our imaginations to making that story as engaging and exciting as
possible.
In order to address this most of the first week was spent on a textual analysis technique taught to me by Katie
Mitchell. Each character had a sheet of paper pinned to the wall with their name at the top and two columns: Facts
and Questions. We also had ones with the same two columns for the driver, The Container itself and each individual
scene. Finally we had a blank timeline and a large map of Europe and the Middle East.
We then go hunting for facts and questions. A fact is anything which is true about the character or the situation and
which cannot reasonably be argued against. For example on the first page the character list tells us that Mariam is an
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Afghan women in her late 20s/early 30s. That goes straight up in the fact column for Mariam. In this case the fact
comes straight from the author so there’s no question of its veracity.
A question is anything we are unsure about, but which would need to be solved to play the scene effectively. For
example when Mariam asks Jemal and Ahmad how long they have been in the Container, Ahmad says, ‘Is it three
days or four?’ The fact is (and we wrote this down) ‘Ahmad asks if they have been in the Container for three days or
four’, we then draw an arrow across to the question and write in ‘Why is he not sure?’ Some theories are suggested
around the table, but we are not interested in theories, so write up on the Container sheet and the timeline that their
journey has been 3 or 4 days so far (no one contradicts him when he says this) and we write as a question ‘Do any of
the characters have watches?’
There is some interpretation involved, obviously, otherwise you would write down as a fact ‘She says. . .’ every time
a character speaks. Care has to be used to select the relevant facts and the most open questions. Phrases like ‘I think’
or ‘I feel’ are banned from the table. ‘I think she is evil’ is unhelpful, whereas ‘Question: Is anything more important
to her than her own life?’ is open and useful.
When characters say things we must also consider if there are any reasons for them to lie, if not we write it down as
a fact. Sometimes we are wrong, for example we wrote down as a fact that the characters have no food at the
beginning of the play and then discovered that Jemal has an apple hidden and had to go back and alter the fact.
So we read through the text very slowly; each actor reading a line in turn (not necessarily those of their own
character) as simply as possible (no performing, yet.) If someone identifies a fact or question they make a buzzing
noise (for a competitive version of this see the exercise plan) and if we agree it we write it up.
Eventually many questions are turned into facts by things we find out later on. Many facts double up and can be
written more simply. By the end of the process, which took pretty much the whole week, we had three or four pages
for each character.
We now have a list of facts and questions for each character. The actor can refer back to the facts to check that their
performance is still telling the story in the text. We need one more stage of work before we can begin to answer the
questions; the research. Each actor has been asked to give a five minute presentation on different research topics. We
learnt about Somalia and the camps where Asha and Fatima were, Afghanistan and the troubles Mariam and Ahmad
are fleeing, and the situation of Turkish Kurds. We learnt about the smugglers who bring people over and what
awaits asylum seekers in Europe. We drop the research in amongst our fact-finding because each presentation brings
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up so much which deeply distresses the group. Finally I have to remind everyone that if we try and play the tragedy
of everyone who seeks asylum in the UK we will end up with melodrama; we must not lose ourselves in research but
only find out what we need to know to play these specific characters.
The research and the facts tie together neatly (mainly because we are travelling a path prepared for us in the writing;
Clare did an amazing amount of research to write the script). For example, our research on Afghan languages and the
fact we have that Mariam speaks Pashto and was forced to flee by resurgent Taliban, means we can locate a
plausible location for her home on a map.
End of week one and the actors are encouraged to take home their list of facts, questions, and notes from their
research and add a new column; answers. These are always provisional, we might find on the floor that the decisions
the actors make clash with their facts in which case we have a clear record of which is which. But the actors are now
ready to use their imaginations to fill out their own histories. The only two guidelines are 1) don’t chose anything the
audience wouldn’t assume (for example, yes, your character never says they weren’t abducted by aliens, so maybe
yours was, but would that ever occur to an audience member?) and 2) what is most emotionally stimulating to your
own imagination? Some stories, Fatima and Asha’s for example, need to be worked through together, so that there is
a shared history.
Week Two
There are now three spaces; our research wall with timelines, maps, etc. the table with books and photos on it to the
left, an open space for warming up to the right, and along the middle of the space a tape mark up of the Container,
along with actual boxes for the cast to sit on.
The cast have brought in their answers and back stories, some of them beautifully detailed and we check in with
Clare to see whether we are on the right track; she seems very pleased. Now we need to test whether the characters
we are developing match the text by getting the whole thing on its feet.
We warm up, then we focus on a section of the text. Each section tends to be a few pages long and I’ve placed the
divides every time something is done or said which changes things for everyone in the Container, for example, when
Mariam enters, or when she pulls out the gun later in the piece. This way the actors will develop a clear sense of
when a vital story point has occurred (later on many of these will be marked by a collective jump to tension state 9
for a second or so – see Chapter 5).
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We read through a section, then I ask each actor to suggest the main thing they are trying to achieve, so for example,
when Mariam enters, Ahmad wants food, Jemal wants information, etc. We then play the scene out in the mark up,
not worrying too much about the moves, just following whatever impulse comes up.
We then look to see if we can find another want each character has, which might conflict or add colour to the main
objective. For example, Ahmad wants to seem respectable, or Jemal wants to control the situation. We then play the
scene focusing just on that want.
Finally we play the scene with both objectives, moving between the two as the actors see fit. It makes life more
difficult for the characters; Ahmad wants to get food from Mariam but wants to seem respectable (so he can’t beg.)
Asha wants to protect Mariam but doesn’t want to be hurt (so she can’t throw herself between Mariam and the
agent.) When the two are both played together we see characters struggling with themselves over their priorities in
each moment which helps make a lot of sense of the play.
I can see some of the actors taking to this idea very naturally, for others it is new, but it definitely brings out the
complexity of the text, and by the end of the week we have put the whole thing on its feet in a rough way.
At the end of each day I ask the cast to lie down (its over 30 degrees in the rehearsal room this week so this is a
popular move) and I use some relaxation techniques to get them comfortable. I then ask them to imagine different
parts of their character’s lives in great detail. I start with the life they are leaving behind, getting them to imagine
their room, objects they might have left, friends, etc. as well as clearly visualising the events leading up to their
departure. The next day we worked on what they imagined London would be like; what drove them to journey there.
We then focused, drawing heavily on our experiences of the first day and on our research, on what it would be like
to spend days in the back of a container, no daylight, no way of knowing where you are or the time of day, with no
food, little water and the smell of the bucket that serves as the only toilet.
By the end of the week we are able, very roughly, to work through the whole play three times; once focusing just on
fear (what’s the worst thing which your character could imagine happening at each moment) and then on their hopes
for the future, in London. When we merged the two together we began to get a sense of what the production will feel
like, of the light and shade in it. I can also see the actors having the space to start exploring their characters in a more
free and physical way, and start forming emotional connections.
At various points this week we have a number of guests; costume chats, for example, where the wardrobe mistress
Catherine, Naomi the designer, Clare and myself sit down with each actor and talk through how they visualise the
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character. We also have Jeff coming back to hone the dialects and Alison, our fight director, who drills the actors on
how to perform safely the various shoves, slaps and grabs that the play requires.
Week Three
We start the week with a visit to another container as we are now focusing much more on torches and their use. Each
character has one; some are normal filament bulbs and give off a warm, orangey light, and some are LEDs with a
bluish glow. That difference is important as it will enable us to get different shadows on the actors’ faces and gives a
bit more depth. We learn that the best way to use the torches is to hold them low (this means that the audience can
see our faces and that we are not blinding the other actors) and we shine the beam on the neck, so that the light spills
across the face rather than dazzling them in the eyes. The effect is very powerful and exciting for the audience, the
down-side is that the actors lose some of the connection and eye contact they have been developing.
The other aspect we explore in our surrogate space is the staging; where can the actors stand so as not to block the
audience’s view? Some places, the very ends of the container for example, are safe to stand in for any period. Each
of the larger boxes down the side is safe to sit in if your back is against the wall, or you can stand by the boxes, in
the middle of the playing space, but only for a limited time, before the audience behind you starts to become
frustrated. We walk the space, developing a real sense of where the audience will be, and how we will have to adapt
them.
Back in the rehearsal room, last week was about creating space for the actors to play, this week I have to be a bit
more active, as we start to make decisions on how things will be played and what the audience has to see. We work
steadily through the text, scene by scene, exploring the different possibilities. I’m treading a fine line; I want to leave
the actors room to make discoveries in performance and for things to vary, but I also know from experience that the
container is an unforgiving space and that the possibilities of movement are limited.
Week Four
Aware that very few people will get to see the final show because of the limited capacity, I’ve arranged to bring
local young people into the rehearsals, as a way to spread the message a bit further. So in week four we move from
Elephant to the Young Vic and one of its studios. By now we have left research behind and the room is now in three
sections; warm up space, the container, and actors’ hang out area.
We also have a sound system so we can get used to speaking over the sound of the container ‘moving’. The first
morning we spend a lot of time on this, and on how one moves differently in a moving vehicle – wider stance, a
need to touch the sides to help balance, etc. The other toy we have, about which I’m very excited, is a piece of fake
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flooring. The sound team has had the brilliant idea of building a false floor in the container, under which will be
massive bass speakers. These will then vibrate the whole floor, and via it, all of the steel sides and the audience
leaning against them. It’s an amazing effect.
Each day young people join our warm up and then a little sample of the process we’ve used. They then show us their
interpretations of the opening scenes. Already they are beginning to respond to the story and the plight of the
characters. In the afternoons we have more fight rehearsals, more voice sessions, more costume fittings, while I carry
on working through the piece finding more and more detail.
On the Friday we do two runs of the play, with torches, in a completely blacked out space, to local school groups.
All of the performances take a massive step up and we can hear when the audience get key plot points and how they
feel about each character. It’s really exciting watching everyone take such a leap forward.
The runs also reveal areas where I’ve made mistakes; bits I thought would be clear but aren’t, and some bits where
we can make some cuts so that the story flows smoother. With the support of David Lan, the Young Vic’s artistic
director, and our producer Debra Hauer, Clare and I discus the way forward and then push ourselves, and the cast
even harder towards making it perfect.
Opening Week
Suddenly, here we are, two years on. The cast are in costume, in the actual container, on the street outside the Young
Vic. The inside of the Container looks disgusting and smells rancid; Naomi has been using vinegar to encourage
rust, but the smell just adds to the effect.
The technical rehearsal is difficult because the sound equipment, coupled with the baking sun hitting our steel roof,
make it unbearably hot, but with the use of industrial fans we cool down ready for the previews. I do a little bit of
work tidying up bits here and there, but mostly my job is done now; it’s time to let the actors own it.
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5. INTERVIEW WITH WRITER, CLARE BAYLEY
Was there a particular moment or event that inspired you to write the play?
There wasn’t a particular event that inspired the play, but a growing consciousness that every day hundreds or
thousands of people were undertaking these incredibly dangerous and uncertain journeys right under our noses, and
that all we heard about them was negative stories in the right wing press about illegal immigrants “flooding” into our
country. I began to wonder what it would be like to be in the back of one of those lorries. I’ve enjoyed travelling to
foreign countries myself on overnight trains and hitch-hiking in lorries, a big adventure – but how different would it
be if you were entirely vulnerable, and in the hands of people who cared little whether you lived or died? It was
while I was writing the play that the terrible news came out of the Chinese students who were discovered dead in an
abandoned container. When that happened at first I thought I shouldn’t write the play at all. Then I thought it made it
even more important to do so.
How closely did you work with Tom, the director, on putting on the production? How did you work together?
From the very beginning of working with Tom he was determined to make the container as “real” as we possibly
could. From the start he had the idea not to use any theatrical lighting inside the container, and only to use torches.
That was when I realised that he and I were completely in agreement and shared a common vision for the
production. In fact I was the one who was worried that the torches weren’t going to provide enough light, and he had
to take me into a small toilet to demonstrate the effect! Tom graciously allowed me to be very involved in the casting
process for Edinburgh, and I realised then that again, we were as one in our perception of the characters. For the
Young Vic production I already had implicit trust in Tom’s judgement, so I was less involved.
How important is it to you that the play is actually set inside a real container? Do you think the play would
have the same affect in a studio?
I always hoped I would be able to persuade somebody to perform the play inside a real container, but I wasn’t sure
anyone would be brave enough. So I wrote the play assuming it would be performed in a theatre. Now that I’ve seen
it in a container it’s hard to imagine it in a theatre, with the audience sitting in neat rows of seating watching it. The
effect of putting the audience inside the container and among the characters meant that they felt very involved in the
story – there was no sense of it being a voyeuristic experience.
How do you view The Agent? Is he a good man?
No. The Agent is not a good man. He is somebody who is trying to make money out of other people’s suffering and
has convinced himself that he is providing a service to people in need. However, he does have some persuasive
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arguments. If he didn’t exist, then none of these people would even have the possibility of escaping from their
difficult lives. It is now virtually impossible to enter this country legally as an asylum-seeker. Besides, the Agent too
is a victim of the system, and the system – as he rightly perceives - is deeply flawed.
What do you feel happens to the characters in the end?
That’s up to the audience and the actors to decide. But I wouldn’t say the play has a happy ending.
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6. INTERVIEW WITH ABHIN GALEYA, PLAYING JEMAL
What were your first impressions of the play?
I really liked it. It opened my eyes – I didn’t know about the dark reality of people smuggling and immigration. It
made me think about how bad the situation is, and how the legal process in this country really doesn’t help matters.
People just want to lead a better life and they will go to desperate measures. If you don’t know much about the
situation, you think it’s not as bas as it is, but the script really educates you.
But it’s not just educating you, it is also a really good drama. Lots of tension and unanswered questions. I was quite
unsure of my character, Jemal, at first – I thought for a while that maybe he was working with the Agent.
What would you say are the key insights into your character?
Initially it is easy to play him on one level – someone who wants to control everything, and is a bit manipulative.
But, at the end of the day, he just wants to get home – he’s as desperate as everyone else. Without his girlfriend and
baby he has no one and nothing. He’s already tried several times. This desperation will lead people to do extreme
things.
What is it like performing in a container?
It’s much more intense. It really helps us to be in the moment and to keep it alive. You have eyes right next to you. It
makes you concentrate and play the objective really hard. There is no room to step out of role. But at the same time,
it’s quite subtle – you can’t do a big performance – there is not enough space for that. The lines are really pointed.
And it’s different each show: the 7pm audience is more tense (just rushed from work and so on) and the 9pm
audience is much more chilled out (had a drink….)
What do you want the audience to take away from the show?
I want them to be taken up in the drama and the journey. I want them also to investigate the issues further – pick up a
paper and so on. But I do want them to be taken up in the journey, otherwise it’s just a rant, a political lecture. The
play could easily have been that, but what makes it so powerful, I think, is that it isn’t a lecture.
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7. INTERVIEW WITH MERCY OJELADE, PLAYING ASHA
What were your first impressions of the script?
Although it’s called The Container, I didn’t realise when I first read it that it was going to be set actually in a
container. I had to read through the script several times to understand all the details – characters’ nationalities and
connections to each other. I wanted to know what happened before and after the play – when I first read it I thought I
had only been sent a section of the play! I didn’t realise it was actually going to end so uncertainly, and when I did
realise that, I was fascinated. I also wondered whether the stories were true or not – later found that they are based
on fact. It was a real education for me – the lessons to be learnt from the script and the circumstances of those
characters’ lives.
How did you prepare for the role?
I researched the history of the character – what she was running from and to; history of Somalia and what would
have been her reasons for fleeing. For Asha, it is all based on her memories of being attacked and raped from a
young age, the death of her parents and her sister. For her character, it is more important to understand and explore
what it is that triggers her bad memories, and how they resurface. I feel that perhaps the way I do this is different
every night.
What are the key insights into her character?
For me, it is how volatile the memories are of the abuse she encountered – and how raw and recent it is for her.
I was also interested by the relationship she has with Fatima who has adopted her as her daughter. She treats her like
a house-servant and this is very common in some countries.
I was also taken by the naivety of her relationships despite all she has gone through. How she makes friends with
Mariam in particular is really interesting. The last female friendship would have been her dead sister – since then, all
her it’s all been men who have abused her. Mariam is a chance to offer and experience friendship.
And, then, on top of all of that, she is a teenager and has to contend with attitude and hormones and mood swings!
What is it like performing inside a container?
I love it. I’m a huge fan of that amount of proximity to the audience. Found it a real personal challenge – you can
never have a night off. There is no escape, no backstage. It’s the most intense when we have extreme weather
conditions – heavy rain or heat. We have to play off it. For these characters it’s just one day in their lives in the
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container. It’s a constant reminder if their experiences – they can’t open a window and get a breath of fresh air, they
have to endure it.
What would you like audiences to take away from watching the play?
If I am honest, an uncomfortable feeling – I don’t want them to be coming out beaming. I want it to make them think
and question themselves, maybe even make them go and find out more about it.
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8. INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS SPYRIDES, PLAYING THE AGENT
What were your first impressions of the script?
It was instantly something I wanted to do. It humanised these characters. At first I read it in mind for auditioning for
both Ahmed and The Agent, but as I read it I hear The Agent’s voice in my head. I was instantly drawn to his
eloquence. He has a high level of English but has not necessarily lived there – he is representative of the whole
dream of England these people have. He mirrors this love/hate relationship for England. He is a bit in awe of
England, but at the same time despises it. I think this is the same of a lot of people in the world. Britain has left its
mark all over the place, and it is not always a fair legacy.
How did you prepare for the role?
I researched into people trafficers, especially ones that have been convicted. There was one Afghani guy in particular
who I was fascinated by. He was head of an operation above a pizza shop in Nottingham, and over a period of some
years, he smuggled 6000 Afghans into the UK. There was a pride and arrogance for his job and achievements. He
said something like he was Europe’s Agent. Did he feel that it was helping the war effort? He felt that he was
offering a service and people paid for it. For me this was the most interesting aspect to try and get across – that sense
of pride.
What’s it like performing inside a container?
My character spends bits of the play outside of the container, so for me I wished that I had been able to see my
colleagues’ work a bit more. But, on the other hand, the fact that the Agent comes in and out reinforces the reality of
the setting. Also, as an actor, it was really great going from the intense light to intense darkness of the container –
felt really realistic. Also, it meant that it provided for the rest of the cast, and the audience that hint of freedom they
all want – there was a real power to that. The director said quite early on that I shouldn’t play the Agent as though he
was a king, but let the other characters put you into that position.
What are the key insights into your character?
He is a business man – he believes he is offering a service that people honestly desire. Although of course, the
morality of these people would be different for each smuggler. For example, he is not totally straight with Mariam –
he is culpable to a certain extent. He knows that she will have to offer herself to the driver as a sexual commodity, as
he sees this as her way of paying for her passage.
What do you want the audience to take away from the play?
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A sense of what people go through to get to this country, and ideally, an experience that could be enough to change
people’s views on the subject. As long as we do our job properly and make it real enough, there is no need for any
extra proselytising.
9. DRAMA EXERCISES
In his diary, director Tom Wright details the process he and the actors used to create the production. Here is an
outline of how to use the exercises with young actors. They can be used as individual exercises in your own
production or followed as a lesson plan (probably over two or three sessions) to experience the entire process behind
The Container.
Warm Up
The function of the warm up is to arrive at the ideal state, ready to work. I’ve found that the choice of the warm up
has to be tailored to the specific needs of the cast and the play. Here is the one I chose for this production.
A) Game
The ones we used, in rotation, were:
Splat
The cast form a circle around the director. The director has a mimed custard pie which they can throw at anyone in
the circle while shouting ‘Splat!’ The victim must duck below the imaginary pie while the people directly next to the
ducker turn and throw their own custard pie at each other, with a loud ‘Splat!’
Once everyone gets the hang of this you can move from safety custard to deadly custard. Players must die and sit
down on the spot if they:
a) Fail to duck.
b) Are late throwing a pie if the person next to them ducks.
c) They make a move when it’s not their fight.
If B dies A and C are considered to be next to each other, so if A ducks C would have to throw a pie at them.
At the very end the last two have to stand back to back; you then say a list of things, with them taking one step apart
for each item. When you say an odd thing out (‘Apple, Banana, Grape, Peach, Trousers’) they must turn and throw
their imaginary pies at each other. The first one to do so is the winner.
Yee Ha!
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A version of zip, zap, boing. Stand the cast in a circle and teach them the following moves one by one, checking that
they have understood each one and being very strict about how you want each one performed.
a) Go ‘Yee Ha!’ to the side, with a sweeping hand motion. See how quickly the cast can send the ‘Yee Ha!’ around
the circle in both directions.
b) Now anyone can change the direction by turning to face the ‘Yee Ha!’ and sending the ‘Yee Ha!’ back with a
sweeping hand motion in the other direction.
c) They point ‘six-shooters’ across the circle and shout ‘click-click’ while getting eye contact with a particular
person. That person can then ‘click-click’ someone else or ‘Yee Ha!’ in either direction.
d) ‘Ho Down!’ is done by taking a wide stance and putting your hands in the air. This skips one in the direction of
travel e.g.: A Yee Ha’s B who Ho Downs, C does nothing, D can now Yee Ha, Click-Click or Ho Down.
Obviously you can never go Ho Down after a Click-Click as there is no direction of travel.
If anyone makes a mistake they sit down on the spot and the game continues, as quickly as possible, until only two
remain. The final show-down is the same as for splat.
Zombie
Each cast member stands in a space in the room. Their feet are now fixed to the floor, if they move their feet they are
dead (out of the game.)
I call out someone’s name and that person becomes a zombie, moving slowly (preferably with a low groan and outstretched arms) towards the nearest person. The zombie is aiming to put her hands gently on the collar bones of her
victim, at which point that person in dead. The only way the victim can save themselves is to call out the name of
another (still alive) player. The original zombie is now alive, feet frozen to the floor and the person whose name was
called is now the zombie, shambling towards the nearest victim.
At some point the cast will realise that you cannot ‘win’ the game, merely keep playing until the last person is dead.
The function of this is just to have fun; it’s great getting a cast screaming as the person behind them has their name
called and becomes a zombie. It also encourages concentration and name learning.
B) Focus
1) Ask the cast to stand with their eyes closed and listen to their body, noticing any aches or tensions, the
weight of the body, how the breath is moving, etc.
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2) Remember or imagine what it feels like in the body to be absolutely ready to work. This state will involve
the perfect balance of being physically and emotionally relaxed, energised and focused.
C) Physical
All these exercises are to do with swinging; allowing body parts to move by relaxing them and allowing their weight
to do the work. With all of these you can remind the cast that they can do the work slowly, breathing out fully, and
concentrating on the weight in order to relax, or quickly, focusing on the in breath and lightness at the top of the
swing to energise themselves, or they can focus on the detail of the movement in order to concentrate. In each
exercise keep the breath involved – always in as the body part is swinging up, and down as it falls.
1) Stand neutrally, legs shoulder-width apart and everything balanced. Imagine that the fingers of one hand are
becoming very light and floating up towards the ceiling, as if they were full of helium, being careful to leave
the shoulder relaxed. Enjoy the lightness of the arm, then allow it to over-balance, take its weight and swing
all the way round so it forms a circle. Enjoy the lightness again before allowing it to over-balance. You can
play with going forward or backwards, pausing at the top of the swing or making the circle continuous, as
you wish. Keep then knees open so that the body bounces with the movement.
2) Head. Be very careful and slow with this one; allow the head to rest to one side, creating a gentle stretch in
the side of the neck. Allow the head to over-balance, breath out and allow the knees to bend as the head rolls
around, chin to chest, and then comes up on the opposite shoulder. Only perform a semi-circle to the front
with this move, never take the head round the back. Allow the head to swing from side to side, noticing how
much effort is required to lift the head, or how much its weight can motivate the movement.
3) Standing on one leg, make a semi-circle with the foot, then swing the let backwards and forwards from the
knee as if a puppeteer where lifting and dropping threads from your toes, then swing the whole leg
backwards and forwards from the hip. Swap legs.
4) Take a wide stance, allow both hands to float towards the ceiling, then take them over to one side slightly, so
that you feel a stretch along your side. Then allow the weight of the head and hands to swing your torso in a
semi-circle, down towards the floor and up the other side. As with the arm swings, you can then fall back the
way you came, or complete full circles.
5) Feet closer together, let the head and hands float up, then overbalance forward, sweeping down into a crouch
and then swinging back up to return to standing.
6) Stand, and, if feeling dizzy, focus on sending the breath deep down towards the feet, feeling the connection
between feet and floor increase.
You can find more exercises like these in the The Actor and His Body, Litz Pisk, Virgin Books (1990).
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D) Breathing
Control of the breath is vital in order to make text heard clearly, especially in a play that requires the actors to make
audible whispers. Also the work increases the oxygen in the body and increases concentration.
The function of all of the stretches (1 to 3) is to place the attention on the breath and how it enters the body, not to go
to the most extreme stretch possible. In each position encourage the cast to breath fully and silently.
1) Stretch to the side. Place your hands on your ribs and notice what it is like to breath into the stretched lung.
2) Cross your arms across your chest and take hold of your shoulders, or shoulder blades. Gently bend your
legs and allow the weight of your head to take you forward. In this position the weight of your head is
curving your back towards the floor and the weight of your hands is widening the shoulders. Notice what it
is like to breathe fully with the back of the body. Try and breathe down into the kidneys, the lower back
below the ribs, so that area rises and falls with the breath.
3) Let the hands flop towards the floor, straighten the legs, slowly roll up, leaving the arms dangling and head
on the chest. Once the back is straight the shoulders drop into position and you lift your head last.
4) Stand and notice how each part of the body is now easily supported by the part below it so that the head can
float easily, neck and back long.
5) Holding your belly button in, place your hands on your lower ribs. Gently push the ribs in as you exhale and
then allow the inhalation to gently push the ribs out. After a couple of minutes see if you can feel the ribs
moving without pushing them.
6) Place your hand on the belly button and feel it move out with the in breath and in towards the spine as you
breath out.
7) Focus on a point on the wall opposite and send your breath out to that point. Place your hands on the
following areas to check your breath is entering deep into the torso: the ribs, navel and kidneys. Check that
the shoulders are not moving.
8) Notice that the deeper you send the breath the less effort you need to send your breath to that point on the
wall. Change the breath now so that you are breathing in only 90% rather than 100% of your capacity, so
you don’t have to hold the breath in when you finish inhaling, but can just allow it out easily. Stop the
exhalation as soon as you start to run out of air, not when the lung is fully empty. Keep the exhalation silent.
9) Send a ‘ssss’ to the point on the wall. The challenge is to make the ‘ssss’ longer and smoother each time, so
that it ends cleanly rather than starting strong and then trailing off. Invite the group to breathe at different
times so that there is a consistent wall of noise in the room.
10) Move to making a hum on one note. Place the hands on the chest, neck, back of your head, top, forehead,
and finally lips to see where the sound is resonating – you will feel a gentle buzz. See if you can locate the
buzz on the lips rather than the throat so that the lips gently tickle your fingers.
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11) Allow the jaw to fall open into an ‘ahhh.’ Again keep the ‘ahhh’ consistent and focused on the spot. As a
group, gently allow the ‘ahhh’s to increase in length and volume.
E) Clarity and relationship with the text
Clarity not only means that the words can be heard, but also makes the text more exciting; over-enunciating is a
great way of grabbing an audience and conveying the impression that your words have great importance. The face
has an extraordinary number of tiny muscles and strengthening these over a number of weeks makes overenunciating effortless.
Pull the biggest open-mouthed face you can. Scrunch your face into a ball. Alternate several times, as quickly as you
can.
1) Pretend you are chewing a huge piece of toffee, touch every part of every tooth with your tongue and move
the jaw in every direction.
2) Take a piece of text, either from a scene you will look at today or one which is causing the actor difficulty.
The actor walks around the room, with an upright posture, mouthing the text as clearly as possible but with
no voice; so that all one would hear are the consonants but not the vowels. Invite the cast not just to warm up
the muscles in their faces but also their sensitivity to the text; are there sections which feel satisfying to say,
which flow quickly or which require great care.
3) Now voice only the vowels. This is especially useful after any accent work has been done to reinforce the
character vowel sounds for the character. Many believe that consonants carry the sense of speech but vowels
convey the emotion. How do the vowel sounds in the speech make you feel?
4) Put the two together and read the whole section out loud, over-enunciating, connecting to each vowel sound
and fully allowing the sound of your voice to fill the room.
You can find more detail on the last two phases of the warm up in Patsy Rodenburg’s books such as The Actor
Speaks (Methuen, 1998)
Scales of performance
It’s important to note that this exercise isn’t just about the physical degree to which you are demonstrating but is also
about your inner desire for privacy or to be watched.
1) Pick a physical activity which you can repeat indefinitely without discomfort. Examples include polishing
your shoes, sewing, ironing, painting a picture, pulling a rope, etc.
2) Begin to perform the activity as if you were actually doing it with a real object; do not enlarge it to make it
clearer. This is level 5 – normal.
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3) Now imagine you are performing this activity in a gallery – people are moving amongst you. Without
massively changing what you are doing you form an intention that you give permission for people to watch
you and you would like them to understand what you are doing. You may find the movement gets a little bit
bigger and clearer. This is level 6 – gallery.
4) You are now in studio theatre with 100 people watching you. You want them to watch you and understand
what you are doing; you want to draw in and hold their attention. The movement may get bigger and slower,
but it might also contain eye-grabbing sharper movements, more punctuated. It may also be further away
from your own body, or might involve lifting your head higher. These qualities will enlarge as we progress.
This is level 7 – studio.
5) Level 8 – main stage, 400 hundred people are watching you and you want to encourage them to do so. How
does the gesture enlarge? Does your exertion increase?
6) Level 9 – opera house, 1000+ people watching your every move and you have to hold their intention. By
this stage your imaginary props may have greatly expanded in size, realism is no longer relevant.
7) Level 10 – arena, 10,000+. Any sense of realism is gone; you need to perform your action in as huge a
manner as possible while still making it clear what you are doing.
8) Count back down again until everyone is working at level 5.
9) As we count down movement gets smaller and smaller, the props themselves may shrink. It is about
becoming increasingly private with your focus more and more on the activity and less and less on any
potential audience. This is equivalent to the kind of performance needed in increasingly tight close ups on
film. By the time you are at one there should be hardly any movement. Notice also that, in addition to
making the movements smaller, you can lower your scale by taking the action closer to the body, making
movements slower, smoother and less punctuated, and by lowering your head.
10) Level 4 – Personal/Head and torso shot
11) Level 3 Private/Head and shoulders
12) Level 2 Intimate/Close up on face
13) Level 1 Secret/Extreme close up on detail. By this stage you can be hardly moving.
14) Talk back up to level 5 again and now make it a game by calling out random numbers (and their titles) and
the cast have to perform immediately at that level.
15) You can then revisit the exercise picking a different activity but spending a minute or so remembering or
imagining an emotion that you are going to experience while you are doing the activity. The aim is not to
show more of the emotion as you increase but for the size of the emotion itself to increase; so on 1 you are
barely feeling anything, just a taste of the emotion, and 9 and 10 are operatic and epic in their hugeness, big
but still true.
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16) It may be worth spending a moment encouraging the cast to consider which levels felt most emotionally
easy – did they find it easier to feel the emotion in low numbers or high? What was the cut off point? Many
actors have an affinity for a particular level and it’s useful to notice at this point as many may need
encouragement to make their performance smaller or larger later on. You know have a vocabulary to have
that discussion with. Often when we talk about over-acting we mean that someone is playing 8, 9 or 10 but
faking the emotion. This exercise means you can work with a truthful actor on pitching their performance
correctly for the size of audience, without implying that they are faking.
The Scales
1) Secret/Extreme close up on eyes
2) Intimate/Close up on face
3) Private/Head and shoulders
4) Personal/Head and torso shot
5) Normal
6) Gallery
7) Studio
8) Main stage
9) Opera House
10) Arena
Tension States
This exercise comes from leCoq.
1) Lie on the floor with your legs and arms straight. Notice the way that the floor supports the body so that you
can relax fully onto it. Bring your attention from the soles of your feet, slowly up to top of your head,
noticing tension ebb out of your muscles as you go. Notice how the breath rolls easily into the body and rolls
even more easily out for a very long out breath. This is state 1 – Catatonic.
2) Add just enough tension to be able to move your body just a little. How can you roll from side to side with
just the minimum of effort? What will happen to your hands and head, if they are free just to roll around?
Can you find a way to move around the space using the minimum of effort? From there see if you can crawl
and finally can you get up on to your feet. How can you walk (or stagger) around the room with minimum
effort, as if your body was very heavy, so that your head and arms swing with each movement, and you
seem to fall onto each foot rather than step. It may be difficult to head in a straight line. This is 2 –
Exhausted, or maybe very drunk.
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3) Now gain a little bit more control; exert a little more effort so that you can get up right and move in a
straight line. There is still a swing to the head, hands and hips, however, and lots of bend in the knees. This
is 3 - Laid Back, like ambling along aimlessly on a sunny day.
4) Neutral/Economic. Use the minimum of effort to become fully vertical, so that the head floats above the
neck and then the weight passes easily down through the spine. You move efficiently around the room, with
no attitude whatsoever. Find different actions to perform, lifting a chair, moving a mug, and do them with no
attitude and no unnecessary tension.
5) Alert. One step up, you become very aware of the whole room, and all the people in it. You are not stressed,
but you now have activities to perform which must be done right now, and correctly, with real focus. Notice
if any physical tension has come into the face, hands or feet.
6) Suspenseful. You can warm up to this one by imagining that you are running late for something important
but you don’t want anyone to notice so you try to move quickly without running. Now you have been told
there may be a bomb in the room. Search for the bomb in a very focused way, without wishing to panic
anyone, but being aware of the stakes. Notice any extra tension in the face, hands and feet.
7) Passionate. There is a bomb in the room. It doesn’t matter what other people think, you have to find it, so
check everywhere as quickly as you can. Feel physical tension mount in every part of your body so that your
limbs feel stiff and your movements jerky.
8) Tragic/Desperate. The bomb is about to go off you have seconds to find it before its all over – feel the
physical tension filling your whole body.
9) The bomb has gone off. Total paralysis. Freeze completely still, with every muscle in the body fully
contracted. You will only be able to hold this for a few moments if you are doing it properly.
10) Count back through the scale.
11) Shout random numbers which the cast have to jump straight to – can they snap from 2 to 5 to 3 to 9 to 1 for
example?
Tension states are useful for pacing a play – if you start off on level 8 then the next bad thing that happens has to
take you to 9, which doesn’t leave you a lot of choices. But also making big jumps in tension are both clear and
satisfying for an audience. In groups of three or four devise a one minute scene, with dialogue if you want, where all
of you go through different tension states. For example, a group of young people are drinking in a cellar (2 or 3
depending on how drunk); they hear a noise upstairs – is it one of their parents? (9); it was a cat, they are so relieved
they relax immensely (2).
Throughout the play we used this to help make it clear when something significant had just taken place. When
Mariam is revealed to be pregnant, for example, the whole company goes to tension state 9 for a moment before
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adopting a new level. This meant that even if an audience member could not see everyone’s faces they still
understood that the revelation had affected everyone.
You can find a slightly different, but more full, exploration of tension states in Why Is That So Funny? By John
Wright (Nick Herne Books, 2006).
The Tension States
1. Catatonic
2. Exhausted
3. Laid back
4. Neutral/economic
5. Alert
6. Suspenseful – Is there a bomb in the room?
7. Passionate – There is a bomb in the room!
8. Tragic – The bomb’s about to go off!
9. Paralysis – The bomb has gone off.
Textual Analysis
This is an adaptation of a system used by Katie Mitchell, based on her study of Stanislavski. You can find a full
description of it in her book The Director’s Craft (Routledge, 2009).
I’ve given it a competitive edge for young people.
1) Designate three cast members to read the text. Divide the rest into two teams. Explain the background to the
scene: ‘Ahmad and Jemal have been in a shipping container as it is driven along, for some time, when
suddenly it stops. The door opens and Mariam is thrown in.’
2) Have the cast read out the scene from The Container (Appendix 3) once. Don’t give a copy to the teams yet.
3) Stick four sheets onto the wall; ‘The Container’, ‘Mariam’, ‘Jemal’, ‘Ahmad’ and ‘Agent.’ Under each title
should be a column marked ‘Fact’ and a column marked ‘question.’ Add the following facts: Mariam:
Afghan woman, early 30s, Jemal: Turkish Kurd man, 20s, Ahmad: Afghan man, 50s.
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4) Explain the columns. A fact is anything which is unarguably true and would be helpful to an actor playing
the character because it reveals an essential piece of back-story, current circumstance or character trait.
While it is a fact that the characters say each line of dialogue it is only recorded if it is significant. For
example, ‘He moves stage left’ is not worth noting. ‘He kills his father with a knife’ is. Facts are objectively
true, not emotional judgements, suppositions or deductions.
If something is debatable write it not as a fact but as a question, for example: Line: ‘I really like you! Can I
have a chip?’ ‘Fact, he only says I like you because he wants a chip’ is a supposition and should really be
‘Question, does he say ‘I like you’ because he wants a chip?’ or ‘Does he really like her?’ Try to make the
questions non-judgemental. The preceding question is more useful than, ‘Is he deceitful and greedy?’ for
example.
The truth of something a character says is tricky to decide. If there is not clear reason for them to lie you
may, at your discretion, accept it as fact. Note that sometimes you find facts which answer previous
questions, in which case you can cross them out, or facts which prompt new questions, which you can
connect with an arrow.
5) Have the cast read the text one line at a time. The teams are looking for facts and questions. The first person
to buzz will be asked to give a fact or question. A point is awarded for each valid fact or question (see
below) or a half point for offering a fact which should really be a question (or vice versa). If the contestant
was correct they run to the relevant sheet of paper and write it up while the next sentence is being said.
Anything which applies to the situation, setting, or to all characters goes into ‘Container.’
6) In order to judge the game you have to have performed your own analysis of the text. Here are some
samples:
AHMAD:
Where's the Agent?
(Agent: Question, who is he?)
JEMAL:
Do you know where we are?
(Jemal: Fact or Question, doesn’t know where they are. Container: Question, why do they not know where they
are?)
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AHMAD:
Did he give you some food?
(Ahmad: Question, is he hungry? Container: Question, do they have food in there? When did they last eat?)
JEMAL:
Do you know where we are?
Do you speak English?
(Container: Do they all speak English?)
MARIAM:
I don't know the name. The north of Italy. Very north.
(If you agree there’s no reason for her to lie it becomes a fact for Container. If you are not sure it’s a question for
Mariam: is she telling the truth and the Container? Are they in the north of Italy?)
JEMAL:
Near the border?
Mariam nods.
(Jemal: Fact, asks repeatedly and specifically for their location. Question, why is this important to him?)
7) Once you have been through the text, give a round of applause to the winning team then divide the cast into
groups of four.
8) Each group nominates a director who then casts the remaining participants in one of the roles. On a fresh
sheet of paper each actor copies down the facts and questions for their character then a new column
‘answers’. Point out to them that they can reword the facts and questions to be clearer or combine them up if
they say similar things.
9) Read through the scene. The director then supports the actors to find answers to the questions. The answers
are decided on the basis of what will be easiest to make an audience read; it is most likely, for example, that
Ahmad asks for food because he is hungry, for example.
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10) Act out the scene. Did the answers seem right in performance? You can also compare different groups and
note that different actors might find subtly different answers which will change their performances.
Research
In order to understand the characters in the piece we had to conduct a lot of research. There is a big difference
between academic research and research for a production. This exercise will hopefully reveal the difference.
1) The actors stay with the same roles they had in the previous scene (Appendix 3). You can also set this
exercise as homework, but if you want to do it in class, ask all the students who played Ahmad to form one
group, all the Jemal’s and all the Mariam’s another. Give the groups copies of the research in this pack;
Afghanistan for Ahmad’s and Mariam’s, and Turkey for Jemal’s, along with copies of the general info on
asylum seeking.
2) Give parts of the research in this pack to each person; a couple of pages on Afghanistan (Chapter 13) to one
Mariam, the general asylum material to another (Chapter 12) and then same again for the Jemal’s and the
Ahmad’s.
3) Ask them all to add the following facts:
Mariam: Her husband was killed by the Taliban and she was threatened with death because they were both
teachers and taught girls in their school.
Ahmad: Was a business man in Afghanistan who left because the US and allies’ War on Terror had caused
his business to fail.
Jemal: Fled Turkey when he was a boy, because of the persecution his family faced as Kurds. He was forced
to go back to Turkey when he grew up and has tried to smuggle himself back into the UK three times, but
each time the UK has failed his asylum application.
4) Each actor has to read through the material and highlight any information which might be relevant to the
characters. Relevant means that it will have directly effected them. For example, in Mariam’s case, the
reporting on the burning of schools will be relevant. In Jemal’s case facts about how hard it is to get asylum
in the UK will be useful. With the timelines, match up how old the character is and note roughly how old
they were when key things happened. Ideally they should find 5 – 10 relevant and interesting things each.
5) Each actor presents their findings to the rest of the group.
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6) Go back into the original groups to play the scenes.
7) Discus how the information from the research effected the way the actors played the characters.
8) They can now pool that knowledge by writing a one page biography of their characters’ lives, incorporating
information from the timeline, and checking to make sure that nothing they imagine would contradict the
facts on their character sheet.
Objective and Counter-Objective
1) Get the groups to refresh their facts, questions and answers and then play the scene.
2) The director asks each of the actors what they thought the primary objective for each character was; what
did they want most.
3) Play through the scene concentrating on that objective.
4) It may be worth comparing the scenes as a larger group and noticing the differences created by differently
worded objectives. For example, Ahmad’s could be: ‘To eat’ or ‘To see if he can get anything of value from
Mariam’; Jemal’s could be ‘To find out where they are,’ or ‘To get information’ or ‘To seem clever’ all of
which would create different scenes.
5) Back in smaller groups the directors ask the actors to pick a second thing the characters want, which might
make getting their primary objective difficult. They can think in terms of ‘I want, but I also want. . .’ for
example, Ahmad’s may be, ‘I want to get food from Mariam, but I want to seem like a respectable person.’
Mariam’s may be ‘I want to protect myself and my property but I want to seem friendly.’
6) Play the scene again but really focus on the counter-objective. Most likely the groups will find that the scene
made less sense. Ask them however, if there were some lines or sections which made more sense.
7) Play the scene a final time, playing both objective and counter-objective, allowing each to naturally come
up. You might discover, for example, that Ahmad really wants Mariam’s food, but has to restrain himself in
order to seem proper. Sometimes his hunger is more powerful than his pride and vice versa. The tension
between the characters’ two wants, helps make the scene exciting.
8) As a final group discussion, talk about how the directors helped the actors find the objectives; was it most
useful to be asked questions, receive suggestions, or just to be told what to do?
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10. DRAMA LESSON PLAN: DEVELOPING DRAMA BASED ON HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
Often when groups devise a production they neglect to consider the effect they are having on the audience. When
you are dealing with human rights issues, however, you have the potential to change people’s views or, to bore and
alienate them. When creating The Container we knew that we could either encourage the audience to become
ambassadors who would tell others about the difficulties asylum seekers face, or make them associate asylum issues
with boredom and lecturing.
This lesson plan can be tailored for use as the first session of any larger project you have which deals with human
rights or other issues, or as a stand alone session to enable drama students to consider the audience when devising
work.
1) Creating the Story / Picking the Issue
Divide the group into smaller groups of four or five. The groups are going to create a simple story based on
human rights issues.
a) Stimulus. Cover a table with different stimuli and each group, without thinking too much about it to pick
one. Random objects, an apple, a broken pen, work great for this. However, if you have a specific goal in
mind you can focus the work more by choosing specific stimuli, for example, pictures or short articles on
human rights abuses (the Amnesty website is a good source for this.)
b) Identify the issue. If you have a specific goal you can state it now. ‘You are going to create a story about
bullying.’ Or, if you want to leave it open, you can give everyone a copy of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (see appendix) and ask them to pick one to base their story on.
c) Create a story. Ask the group to create a story based on the object and the issue. For example a group with
an apple might choose to explore Article 23 ‘Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions’ by
creating the story of a group of apple-pickers forming a union to oppose an abusive employer.
d) Share. It’s useful to have each group tell the story, very simply, to the others at this point.
In writing The Container, Clare Bayley became fascinated by Article 14: ‘Everyone has the right to seek and to
enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution’ and the way in which European countries undermine this right
by refusing visas to people from troubled countries, forcing them to enter illegally, trusting their lives to
criminals. In her research she came across testimonies from people who were smuggled into Europe inside
shipping containers.
2) Defining the Purpose.
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Give the groups a goal in staging the piece. This may be real; ‘We are going to perform in assembly next week
and we want the audience to realise that bullying is wrong’ if that’s your project, or fictional. You must specify
the audience, however, such as the rest of the school or parents.
3) Considering the Audience.
Each group writes down as many ideas as they can on a piece of paper for the following questions. You can set a
time limit of a few minutes if this is a one-off workshop.
a) What does the audience know about the story? Could be a little, could be a lot. It could be that the audience
is from a diverse range of backgrounds, ages and experiences, or they could be very similar. Anything which
occurs is worth writing down.
In creating The Container, Clare knew her audience would mainly be theatre goers, who might know a bit about
the countries asylum seekers were coming from and would know the image of asylum seekers presented in the
press. However, they probably would not know the details about people smuggling. For example, asylum
seekers are deported to the last country they were in, which is why they often choose to travel in a container, so
they don’t know where they have been and cannot be sent back there.
b) How will the audience feel about the story? Imagine you said to them you are going to see a play about X.
How would they feel? Again, your audience may have similar responses, or be very diverse. Might some of
them think it’s boring? Might some of them have experienced similar things to the events in the story and
become disturbed?
Clare, for example, knew that the only audience who came to a piece ‘about asylum seekers’ would already be
aware of the issues, unless she could find a way of giving the play greater appeal, as many theatre goers feel
plays about issues can be ‘boring’ or ‘preachy.’
c) What are the challenges? Bring together everything you’ve just learnt; what information will you need to
give the audience? How would you like to make them feel in order to achieve your goal?
Clare knew she would have to give some information in the play about how the asylum system works and some
details about the situations in the various countries from which the characters were fleeing. She would have to
find a way to make the piece exciting and to enable the audience to empathise with characters very different
from themselves, and who they were used to seeing demonised in the press.
d) Solutions. Now generate ideas about how you could tell the story dramatically. At this stage concentrate on
getting as many as possible rather than getting the one perfect solution. For example:
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Thriller, Musical, Melodrama, Verbatim, Monologues
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Acting Styles: Mime, Physical Theatre, Naturalism, Dance
Tools: Video projection, Puppets, Masks
Space: Theatre (end on, in the round, traverse, thrust – all have a different effect on the audience) or another
space? Are the audience sat, do they move around, are they led around?
Is there audience interaction?
For example, Clare chose to make the piece exciting by giving it a structure similar to a thriller, with the
audience always guessing what will happen next, who might be lying, and who might have the money after all?
She also felt that in order to create empathy with the characters, the audience should be inside the space with
actors, preferably in a real container.
4) Experimenting. At this point most students and actors will gravitate towards the idea which is most exciting
and enjoyable for them to do. Often that will end up being the most exciting for the audience, too, but not
always. It is easy at this point to lose sight of the effect you want to have on the audience; to engage them in
your chosen issue.
Ask each group to pick three different options for how they might dramatise their story (two if time is running
low.) They are going to provide the other groups with a one minute sample of each version of the piece. The aim
is for the other groups to experience the idea. For example, if you are going to take the audience through a
labyrinth make a simple corridor with chairs, briefly explain that the chairs represent high walls, and then lead
the audience through.
Clearly establish that the showing is not for the audience, it is for the demonstrating group to make discoveries;
they are not performing and therefore no one is being judged on their performance. Have each group show their
three one-minute sections. Ask the group showing the work to be aware of the reaction of their audience.
It is tempting to ask the audience for their feedback and defer decisions on to them. Instead ask the groups to
reconvene and judge what they thought worked best, based on how the audience seemed to react. This avoids
ego ‘I didn’t like the one where you. . .’ ‘Yes, but that’s because we didn’t have as long to rehearse it. . .’ etc.
Later on, once the group has developed a piece and is working on detail, it would be appropriate to ask an
audience for its spoken response and feedback.
When The Container was in rehearsal, local schools groups were invited in to see the work. By listening to the
audience the cast and director could hear when their audience was engaged in the work, when the story was
clear, exciting, funny, or when it was boring or confusing. Laughs, sighs, fidgets, and stillness - all of these
provided vital clues. As a result of this unspoken feedback, they were able to make substantial changes to both
the script and the staging to improve the play.
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Hopefully by working this way the groups will come to see the other groups as a useful resource for
experimentation.
5) Develop the piece.
In a stand alone workshop the groups will already have developed an awareness of the importance of thinking
carefully about the effect you wish to have on the audience. If you are continuing do develop the piece over a
number of sessions you might want to encourage the groups to return regularly to their goals and to reconsider
the knowledge and feelings of their audience. If they are making work for a specific audience, you may wish to
arrange for such an audience to watch some of the work, or it may be enough to regularly ask them to show the
other groups their progress and to consider the audience’s reaction.
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11. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
In order to understand the piece and the lives of the characters that they were playing, the cast had to conduct a great
deal of research. In particular they wanted to understand why the characters would undertake such a difficult journey
and what exactly it was that they were fleeing. A lot of the research materials that they used were provided by the
co-producers of the production, Amnesty International, the human rights movement. Below you will find
information about Amnesty International, about asylum seekers and refugees and about the human rights situation in
the countries that the characters in the play came from.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human
rights to be respected and protected for everyone.
They believe human rights abuses anywhere are the concern of people everywhere and work to improve people’s
lives through campaigning and international solidarity.
Their mission is to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to
demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.
Their members and supporters exert influence on governments, political bodies, companies and intergovernmental
groups.
Amnesty takes up human rights issues by mobilizing public pressure through mass demonstrations, vigils and direct
lobbying as well as online and offline campaigning.
To find out more about the work of Amnesty International as an organization, and ways in which schools can get
involved, please go to: http://www.amnesty.org.uk
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12. ASYLUM
The key issue in The Container is the plight of asylum-seekers: why they are fleeing, how difficult it is to get to safe
countries and what happens to them on that journey. Below is some background information on refugees taken from
various sources.
Overview
An estimated 200 million people out of a global population of 6.5 billion live outside the country in which they were
born – approximately 3 per cent of the world’s population.
Every day people leave their homes, communities and countries to live abroad. Most go for economic reasons, to
live, to work or to seek education in another country. But some leave to seek safety in another country because they
and their families fear for their lives, escaping from danger, ill treatment, insecurity or discrimination. The refugees
and asylum seekers of the world often survive in squalid conditions. They are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
Their lives are disrupted. Many are separated from their families. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to
violence, including sexual violence.
Although asylum seekers have human rights, governments and the media throughout the world tend to portray them
as a problem, rather than as people fleeing terror. They may be described as greedy and even as "terrorists", with
little or no regard to the political or human rights crises they have left. Highly charged debates give little or no credit
to the contributions that refugees can make to their new societies. Many governments are using sophisticated
immigration controls to stop migrants and asylum-seekers from even setting foot on their territories.
Some asylum seekers and refugees are forced to go to extreme measures to try and reach a place of safety as can be
seen in The Container.
Terminology
There are many different terms for people who have, for one reason or another, fled their home. Here are some
definitions.
Who is a refugee?
A refugee is someone who leaves their country and seeks asylum in another country, who has a well-founded fear of
being persecuted for reasons of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion.
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UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 (Geneva Convention)
Who is an asylum-seeker?
An asylum-seeker is defined as someone who is seeking asylum and is waiting for a Government to decide on their
claim for refugee status. While waiting for this decision an asylum seeker cannot legally be returned to their country
of origin.
Who is a migrant?
A migrant is a person who moves from one country to another to live, and usually to work, either temporarily or
permanently. Some migrants move voluntarily. Others feel impelled to leave because of economic hardship or other
problems in their home country. Many move for a mixture of reasons.
Rights
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all people including refugees and asylum seekers, are
entitled to certain fundamental rights.
Refugees’ and asylum seekers’ rights include:

protection from being forcibly returned to a country where they would be at risk of serious human rights
abuses

protection from discrimination

the right to identity and travel documents

the rights to work, housing and education

protection from penalties for illegal entry

the right to freedom of movement
In addition, they should

not be prohibited from entering a country to seek asylum

have access to fair procedures to determine whether they are refugees, and to lawyers, interpreters and
organizations that can help them

not be unlawfully detained

not be separated from their families
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However, asylum-seekers are often detained in the countries where they are seeking safety. Seeking asylum is not a
crime, yet an increasing number of people who have sought asylum in the UK are being detained under Immigration
Act powers.
The impact of detention on mental and physical health can be severe, particularly for children. The UK, Australia,
Malaysia, Thailand and the USA are among countries where children seeking asylum are being locked up.
Like everyone, migrants – regardless of their legal status – have human rights. Some of these rights include the right
to freedom from slavery, and to freedom from arbitrary detention. The Migrant Workers’ Convention, an
international treaty, provides that all migrants without any exception have the right to education, freedom of religion
and expression, equal access to courts, and rights at work, among others. In addition, some International Labour
Organization treaties cover migrant workers’ rights at work.
Trafficking and Smuggling
As we see in The Container, the desperation of poverty and suffering pushes many people into irregular migration,
as legal avenues are not available to them.
Smuggling
People smugglers are often used by asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution, although many other people who
are being smuggled are economic migrants seeking to better their employment and financial opportunities
For those people who can afford it, people smugglers will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on
arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is usually freed.
Trafficking
However some asylum seekers unable to cover their travel costs are vulnerable to being drawn, often unwittingly,
into trafficking networks. Threatened, coerced, deceived or abducted by members of organized criminal networks,
they are taken far from home, stripped of their identity documents and may be forced into slavery-like conditions,
prostitution, sweatshop labour and forced marriage.
Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world, with the total annual revenue for trafficking
in persons estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion.
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In The Container, the character The Agent is a people smuggler. But the boundaries often get blurred – Mariam’s
fate is more typical of someone who is being trafficked.
Dispelling some myths

The UK is home to less than 2% of the world’s refugees – out of more than 16 million refugees and asylum
seekers worldwide. (UNHCR, 2008 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum seekers, Returnees, Internally
displaced and Stateless Persons, )

About 80% of the world’s refugees are in developing countries, often in camps. Africa, the Middle East and
and Asia host more than three quarters of the world’s refugees. Europe has received just 14%. (UNHCR,
2007 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum seekers, Returnees, Internally displaced and Stateless Persons,
2008)

In 2008, the UK was ranked 17th in the league table of industrialised countries for the number of asylum
applications per head of population. (UNHCR Asylum levels and trends in industrialised countries 2007 and
2008 )
There is no such thing as an ‘illegal’ or ‘bogus’ asylum seeker. Under international law, everyone has the right to
apply for asylum and to remain in the country where they have fled until the authorities have assessed the validity of
their claim to be a refugee.

The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951, that has been ratified by 147 UN
member states, guarantees everybody the right to apply for asylum. It has saved millions of lives.

Asylum seekers are not economic migrants. The top ten refugee producing countries in 2007 all have poor
human rights records or ongoing conflicts. (UNHCR, 2007 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum seekers,
Returnees, Internally displaced and Stateless Persons, 2008)
Asylum seekers want to work and support themselves. Many do voluntary work while their asylum application is
being processed.
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
The vast majority of asylum seekers are not allowed to work. They are forced to rely on state support, which
is set at just 70% of the level of state income support.

Asylum seekers do not come to the UK to claim benefits. In fact, most know very little about the UK asylum
or benefits systems before they arrive.

The vast majority of people seeking asylum are law-abiding citizens. (Association of Chief Police Officers
(ACPO), Guide to meeting the policing needs of asylum seekers and refugees)

Immigration officers have the power to detain asylum seekers, who have committed no crime

Immigrants, including refugees, pay more into the public purse compared to their UK born counterparts.
(Institute for Public Policy Research, Paying their way: the fiscal contribution of immigrants in the UK,
2005)

Asylum-seeking children contribute very positively to schools across the country. This in turn enables more
successful integration of families into local communities. (Office for Standards in Education, The education
of asylum seeker pupils, October 2003)
Britain's asylum system is very tough, strictly controlled and complex. It is very difficult to get asylum.

Visa restrictions and the e-borders programme are strengthening the borders, as the UK is closes the doors to
those seeking protection. (Refugee Council, Remote Controls: how UK border controls are endangering the
lives of refugees, 2008)

Since 2005 people recognised as refugees are only given permission to stay within the UK for five years.

There were only 25,670 asylum applications to the UK in 2008. The figures for applications for refugee
status have fallen by almost half over the last five years. (Home Office quarterly statistical summary, asylum
statistics 2008 )

The Home Office is now detaining 2,000 asylum-seeking children with their families each year. (Save the
Children, No place for a child, 2005)

Home Office decision-making remains poor. 23% of asylum appeals decided in 2006 resulted in Home
Office decisions being overturned. (Home Office, Asylum statistics: 4th quarter 2006, 2007)
Sources:
 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/POL33/001/2007/en/d511d89e-d3c4-11dd-8743d305bea2b2c7/pol330012007en.html

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10150

http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/practice/basics/facts.htm#factsix

http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/supportourwork/whereonearth/topten/index.htm
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13. AFGHANISTAN
In staging the production we conducted a lot of research into the plight of asylum seekers and into the countries the
characters come from, especially Somalia and Afghanistan. Here is some of the material we found useful, much
from the Amnesty International website.
In the production, Mariam and Ahmad are both fleeing Afghanistan, for very different reasons; one because of
persecution from the resurgent Taliban and the other from the effects of the War on Terror on his business. It is
factors like these that make Afghanistan the number one asylum-producing nation on the planet. Below are details
on the human rights abuses there.
Head of state and government Hamid Karzai
Death penalty retentionist
Population 28.2 million
Life expectancy 42.9 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f) 232/237 per 1,000
Adult literacy 28 per cent
The Refugee Council reported that in 2005-6:
Number of refugees and asylum seekers: 1,922,087 and rising
Number of internally displaced persons: 142,505 and rising
Total: 2,064,592
Number of asylum applications to the UK (June05-June06): 1985
Background Introduction

1919 - Afghanistan regains independence after third war against British forces trying to bring country under
their sphere of influence.

1926 - Amanullah proclaims himself king and attempts to introduce social reforms leading to opposition
from conservative forces.

1929 - Amanullah flees after civil unrest over his reforms.

1933 - Zahir Shah becomes king and Afghanistan remains a monarchy for next four decades.

1953 - General Mohammed Daud becomes prime minister. Turns to Soviet Union for economic and military
assistance. Introduces a number of social reforms, such as abolition of purdah (practice of secluding women
from public view).
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
1963 - Mohammed Daud forced to resign as prime minister.

1964 - Constitutional monarchy introduced - but leads to political polarisation and power struggles.

1973 - Mohammed Daud seizes power in a coup and declares a republic. Tries to play off USSR against
Western powers. His style alienates left-wing factions who join forces against him.

1978 - General Daud is overthrown and killed in a coup by leftist People's Democratic Party. At the same
time, conservative Islamic and ethnic leaders who objected to social changes begin armed revolt in
countryside.

1979 - Power struggle between leftist leaders Hafizullah Amin and Nur Mohammed Taraki in Kabul won by
Amin. Revolts in countryside continue and Afghan army faces collapse. Soviet Union finally sends in troops
to help remove Amin, who is executed.

1980 - Babrak Karmal, leader of the People's Democratic Party Parcham faction, is installed as ruler, backed
by Soviet troops. But anti-regime resistance intensifies with various mujahideen groups (guerrilla fighters)
fighting Soviet forces. US, Pakistan, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia supply money and arms.

1985 - Mujahideen come together in Pakistan to form alliance against Soviet forces. Half of Afghan
population now estimated to be displaced by war, with many fleeing to neighbouring Iran or Pakistan. New
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says he will withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

1986 - US begins supplying mujahideen with Stinger missiles, enabling them to shoot down Soviet
helicopter gunships. Babrak Karmal replaced by Najibullah as head of Soviet-backed regime.

1988 - Afghanistan, USSR, the US and Pakistan sign peace accords and Soviet Union begins pulling out
troops.

1989 - Last Soviet troops leave, but civil war continues as mujahideen push to overthrow Najibullah.

1992 - Resistance closes in on Kabul and Najibullah falls from power. Rival militias vie for influence.

1993 - Mujahideen factions agree on formation of a government with ethnic Tajik, Burhanuddin Rabbani,
proclaimed president.

1994 - Factional contests continue and the Pashtun-dominated Taliban emerge as major challenge to the
Rabbani government.

1996 - Taleban seize control of Kabul and introduce hard-line version of Islam, banning women from work,
and introducing Islamic punishments, which include stoning to death and amputations.

1997 - Taliban recognised as legitimate rulers by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Most other countries continue
to regard Rabbani as head of state. Taliban now control about two-thirds of country.

1998 - Earthquakes kill thousands of people. US launches missile strikes at suspected bases of militant
Osama bin Laden, accused of bombing US embassies in Africa.
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
1999 - UN imposes an air embargo and financial sanctions to force Afghanistan to hand over Osama bin
Laden for trial.

2001 January - UN imposes further sanctions on Taliban to force them to hand over Osama bin Laden.

2001 October - US, Britain launch air strikes against Afghanistan after Taliban refuse to hand over Osama
bin Laden, held responsible for the September 11 attacks on America.

2001 7th December - Taliban finally give up last stronghold of Kandahar, but Mullah Omar remains at large.

2001 22nd December - Pashtun royalist Hamid Karzai is sworn in as head of a 30-member interim powersharing government. Allied forces continue their military campaign to find remnants of al-Qaeda and
Taliban forces in the south-east.

2004 January - Grand assembly - or Loya Jirga - adopts new constitution which provides for strong
presidency.

2004 October-November - Presidential elections: Hamid Karzai is declared the winner, with 55% of the
vote. He is sworn in, amid tight security, in December.

2005 September - First parliamentary and provincial elections in more than 30 years.

2005 December - New parliament holds its inaugural session.

2007 August - Opium production has soared to a record high, the UN reports.

2008 September - President Bush sends an extra 4,500 US troops to Afghanistan, in a move he described as
a "quiet surge".

2008 October - Germany extends Afghanistan mission to 2009 and boosts troop numbers in Afghanistan by
1,000, to 4,500.

2008 November - Taliban militants reject an offer of peace talks from President Karzai, saying there can be
no negotiations until foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

2009 April - President Hamid Karzai confirms for first time that he is to stand for re-election in August.

2009 20 August - Elections are held, but are marred by widespread Taliban attacks, patchy turnout and
claims of serious fraud. Accusations of vote rigging and concerns over the low voter turnout cast doubt on
the legitimacy of the polls.
The two Afghan characters in the play view the situation in their country very differently. Ahmad can no longer run
his business as a result of the economic effects of the 2001 invasion that he blames on the US. Mariam, on the other
hand, is fleeing the country to seek asylum after the resurgent Taliban killed her husband, and threatened her for
teaching girls.
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Human Rights Abuses
The following are extracts from the Amnesty International Report on human rights abuses in Afghanistan during
2008 .
In 2009 millions of people living in southern and eastern Afghanistan, terrorized by the Taleban, other insurgent
groups and local militias ostensibly allied with the government, suffered insecurity that further restricted their
already limited access to food, health care, and schooling. Indiscriminate attacks, abductions and the targeting of
civilians reached unprecedented levels. The Taleban and other anti-government groups significantly expanded their
attacks to cover more than a third of the country, including areas once considered relatively safe in the centre and the
north. Increased military attacks between anti-government groups and US and NATO troops resulted in more than
2,000 civilian deaths. The government failed to maintain the rule of law or to provide basic services to millions of
people even in areas under its control.
In areas controlled by the Afghan government, both health and education systems suffered from inadequate funding,
lack of qualified professionals, and security problems. Deteriorating security forced the Ministry of Public Health to
shut down a significant number of health clinics, the only health services available to many people.
Justice system
Working conditions including low wages and a lack of personal security are often cited as reasons for judges,
prosecutors, and other civil servants working in the justice sector being susceptible to corruption, which is believed
to be widespread. Most people, and in particular women, had difficulty accessing courts and legal assistance; most
could not afford court fees or travel costs. Traditional jirgas and shuras (informal tribal councils), which operate
outside the formal justice system and have led to violations of the right to fair trial, continued to handle an estimated
80 per cent of all disputes, particularly in rural areas.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions
Arbitrary arrest and detention by the police and other official security agencies, as well as private militias working
with Afghan and international security forces, were widespread. The NDS (the Afghanistan Intelligence Service)
continued arbitrarily to arrest and detain suspects without allowing access to defence lawyers, families, courts or
other outside bodies. Scores of detainees were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including being whipped,
exposed to extreme cold and deprived of food.
Death penalty
Seventeen people were executed in 2008 and at least 111 others were on death row. The Supreme Court of
Afghanistan upheld 131 death sentences issued by lower courts which await President Karzai’s approval. The trial
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proceedings in most cases violated international standards of fairness, including providing inadequate time for the
accused to prepare their defence, lack of legal representation, reliance on weak evidence and the denial of the
defendants’ right to call and examine witnesses.
In December 2008, Afghanistan voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide
moratorium on executions.
Abuses by Afghan and international forces
Civilian casualties have been increasing since 2001 and 2008 proved to be the bloodiest year yet. Most civilians
were injured as a result of insurgent attacks but some 40 per cent (795) of civilian casualties were due to operations
by Afghan and international security forces - a 30 per cent increase in the 559 reported in 2007.
Serious concerns about the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of air strikes were raised following several grave
incidents. On 6 July US-led coalition air strikes in Deh Bala district in Nangahar Province reportedly killed 47
civilians, including 30 children; on 21-22 August air strikes carried out in Shindand district of Herat Province
resulted in more than 90 civilian casualties, including 62 children.
In September 2008, responding to criticism regarding the high number of civilian deaths, NATO again revised its
rules of engagement to limit the use of immediate air strikes if ground troops come under attack, giving more time to
plan for an air strike and seek approval from higher levels of command. Some families whose relatives were killed
or injured and those who had property destroyed received financial compensation from governments involved in
military operations. However, Afghan and international forces lack a systematic programme for assisting those
injured by Afghan and international military forces. Furthermore, NATO and US forces continued to hand over
detainees to the NDS that perpetrates human rights violations including torture and arbitrary detention with
impunity.
Abuses by armed groups
Criminal gangs and armed groups (some ostensibly allied to the government) abducted foreigners and attacked
business owners, aid workers, teachers, education aid projects and schools to destabilize security and halt
development efforts throughout the country. Seventy-eight employees of various NGOs were abducted and another
thirty one killed. The Taleban and other insurgent groups stepped up their “tactic” of deliberately targeting women,
including kidnapping.
Suicide attacks
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Suicide attacks resulted in 373 deaths in 2008. Taleban and other insurgent suicide attacks with military or police
targets often resulted in high civilian deaths and injuries.
Freedom of expression
Freedom of expression, which flourished briefly after the fall of the Taleban in 2001, was eroded by threats and
attacks from both state and non-state actors. The Taleban and other anti-government groups targeted journalists and
blocked nearly all reporting from areas under their control. The government, in particular the NDS, and the Ulema
Council (council of religious scholars) attempted to curtail media independence.
Discrimination and violence against women and girls
Although women increasingly participated in politics and public life, their rights remained constrained by social
prejudice and violence within the home and by armed groups. The number of women holding senior ministerial
positions decreased. For example, on 28 September, 2008 Malalai Kakar, the highest ranking policewoman in
Afghanistan, was killed by Taleban gunmen near her home in Kandahar. On 12 November, 2008 two men on a
motorcycle used water pistols to spray acid on some 15 girls walking to school in Kandahar, blinding at least two of
them and disfiguring several others. Ten Taleban insurgents were later arrested in connection with the attack.
Women suffered from high rates of domestic violence and had little, if any, recourse to legal protection. According
to the AIHRC, 60 to 80 per cent of all marriages were forced and under-age marriages occurred in high numbers.
Women who sought to flee abusive marriages were often detained and prosecuted for alleged offences such as
“home escape” or “moral” crimes that are not provided for in the Penal Code.
Lack of humanitarian access
Insecurity caused by the Taleban and other insurgent groups in the south and east stopped many aid organizations
from operating in these areas. In August, the International Rescue Committee halted all aid operations in
Afghanistan after four workers were killed by militants in Logar province. In Kunar province, the significant Taliban
presence prevented the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from directly providing supplies to Pakistani refugees
who had fled fighting between the Pakistani security forces and pro-Taleban insurgents in Pakistan’s Federally
Administered Tribal Areas.
Right to health and education
In Afghanistan, burning down schools, particularly girls' schools, and threatening or assaulting girls who attend
school have become increasingly common in recent years. At least 172 violent attacks on schools took place in the
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first six months of 2006. Attacks have been attributed to a number of different groups, including the Taleban and
Hezb-e-Eslami, as well as local warlords and criminal gangs. Motives include undermining the authority of the
central government and opposition to girls' education. Between 2005 and 2006, 359 schools were closed in the
provinces of Kandahar, Paktika, Zabul, Ghazni, Khost, Helmund, Uruzgan and Daikandi because of security
concerns for children and teachers, denying access to education for around 132,000 children.
In The Container, Mariam is fleeing because of persecution from the Taleban for attempting to teach girls.
Internally displaced people and returnees
The Afghanistan Internally Displaced People Task Force, comprising international aid agencies and the government,
estimated that more than 235,000 people were internally displaced. They faced desperate circumstances in conflict
zones as international and local humanitarian agencies faced difficulties in reaching them.
More than 276,000 Afghan refugees living in Iran and Pakistan returned home in 2008 according to UNHCR. Many
returnees faced destitution, with scarce job opportunities and lack of access to land, housing, water, heath care and
education. Some returnees became internally displaced because their property had been appropriated by local powerholders.
In September, 2008 more than 20,000 people fled from Pakistan to eastern Afghanistan to avoid the fighting
between the Pakistani security forces and pro-Taleban insurgents in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Sources:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/afghanistan/colleen-article/page.do?id=1431011
http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/regions/asia-pacific/afghanistan
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA11/003/2008/en/ASA110032008en.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1162108.stm
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14. SOMALIA
Fatima and Asha are from Somalia, the ninth biggest source of refugees on Earth. Fatima and Asha have been living
in a refugee camp – perhaps in Kenya or Ethiopia - for years before making the journey to Europe, where they enter
the container. Below are details of human rights abuses in Somalia that they may have faced.
Head of state of Transitional Federal Government Adan
Mohamed Nuur Madobe (replaced Abdullahi Yusuf
Ahmed in December)
Head of government of Transitional Federal Government Nur
Hassan Hussein
Head of Somaliland Republic Dahir Riyaale Kahin
Death penalty retentionist
Population 9 million
Life expectancy 47.1 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f) 196/186 per 1,000
The Refugee Council reported that in 2005-6:
Refugees and asylum seekers: 425,227 and rising
Number of internally displaced persons: 400,000 and rising
Total: 825,227
Number of asylum applications to the UK (June 05 - June 06): 1790
Background Introduction
Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, is home to nearly nine million people. Its population is almost entirely Sunni Muslim
and majority ethnic Somali and is made up of four main clan-families and minority groups. Somalia’s population has
been subjected to decades of intensive inter-clan violence, and is vulnerable to severe droughts and floods which
contribute to widespread malnutrition and poverty. Humanitarian and human rights conditions have been dire.

1960 - British and Italian parts of Somalia become independent, merge and form the United Republic of
Somalia; Aden Abdullah Osman Daar elected president.

1967 - Abdi Rashid Ali Shermarke beats Aden Abdullah Osman Daar in elections for president.

1969 - Muhammad Siad Barre assumes power in coup after Shermarke is assassinated.
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
1970 - Barre declares Somalia a socialist state and nationalises most of the economy.

1974-75 - Severe drought causes widespread starvation.

1991 - Mohamed Siad Barre is ousted. Power struggle between clan warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and
Ali Mahdi Mohamed kills or wounds thousands of civilians.

1992 - US Marines land near Mogadishu ahead of a UN peacekeeping force sent to restore order and
safeguard relief supplies.

2000 August - Clan leaders and senior figures meeting in Djibouti elect Abdulkassim Salat Hassan president
of Somalia.

2000 October - Hassan and his newly-appointed prime minister, Ali Khalif Gelayadh, arrive in Mogadishu
to heroes' welcomes. Gelayadh announces his government, the first in the country since 1991.

1993 - US Army Rangers are killed when Somali militias shoot down two US helicopters in Mogadishu and
a battle ensues. Hundreds of Somalis die in the battle depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down". US mission
formally ends in March 1994.

2001 April - Somali warlords, backed by Ethiopia, announce their intention to form a national government
within six months, in direct opposition to the country's transitional administration.

2001 August - UN appeals for food aid for half a million people in the drought-hit south.

2004 August - In the 14th attempt since 1991 to restore central government, a new transitional parliament
inaugurated at ceremony in Kenya. In October the body elects Abdullahi Yusuf as president.

2005 February - June - Somali government begins returning home from exile in Kenya, but there are bitter
divisions over where in Somalia the new parliament should sit.

2006 March and May - Scores of people are killed and hundreds are injured during fierce fighting between
rival militias in Mogadishu. It is the worst violence in almost a decade.

2006 June-July - Militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts take control of Mogadishu and other parts of
the south after defeating clan warlords. Ethiopian troops are reported in Somalia.

2006 October - About 35,000 Somalis escaping drought, strict Islamist rule and the possibility of war have
fled to Kenya refugee since the start of 2006, the UN reports.

2006 December - Ethiopian and transitional government engage the Islamists in battle and soon put them to
flight.

2006 December 27 - African Union and Arab League urge Ethiopia to pull out its troops. UN Security
Council fails to agree on a statement calling on foreign forces to withdraw.

2006 December 28 - Joint Ethiopian and Somali government force captures Mogadishu.

2007 January - Islamists abandon their last stronghold, the port town of Kismayo. President Abdullahi Yusuf
enters Mogadishu for the first time since taking office in 2004.
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
2007 March - African Union peacekeepers land at Mogadishu amid pitched battles between insurgents and
government forces backed by Ethiopian troops. The Red Cross says it is the worst fighting in 15 years.

2007 April - UN says more than 320,000 Somalis have fled fighting in Mogadishu since February. Hundreds
of people are reported killed after several days of fierce clashes in the capital.

2007 May - The World Food Programme says a resurgence of piracy is threatening food supplies.

2007 August - Human Rights Watch accuses Ethiopian, Somali and insurgent forces of war crimes, and the
UN Security Council of indifference during the recent conflict.

2007 November - Government shuts down Radio Shabelle, Radio Simba and Radio Banadir. Number of
Somali refugees hits one million, with nearly 200,000 fleeing the capital in the past two weeks, the UN
reports.

2008 October - Nato agrees to despatch a naval force to patrol to waters off Somalia by the end of 2008, in
an effort to control piracy.

2008 December - Ethiopia announces plans to withdraw all forces by end of 2008.

President Abdullahi Yusuf resigns.

2009 January - moderate Islamist, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is elected president.

2009 June - Somalia's security minister and more than 20 other people are killed in a suicide bombing at a
hotel in Beledweyne, north of the capital Mogadishu. President Ahmed declares a state of emergency as
violence intensifies. Somali officials appeal to neighbouring countries to send troops to Somalia, as
government forces continue to battle Islamist insurgents.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says Ethiopia will intervene in Somalia if the situation there poses a
national security threat to his country.

Aid agencies says some four million people in Somali - or about one-third of the population - need food aid.
The humanitarian and human rights situation in Somalia has grown worse. Security in many parts of Mogadishu is
non-existent. The situation is characterized by growing numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees.
Clan militias, remnants of the forces of the former Islamic Courts Union, other militias, and armed bandits, as well
as the forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and Ethiopia have all perpetrated abuses against
civilians. Death threats and deadly violence against journalists, other media workers, and human rights defenders
escalated in late 2007.
Human Rights Abuses
The following are extracts from the Amnesty International Report on Human rights abuses in Somalia during 2008.
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All parties in the complex conflict are committing human rights abuses, and are violating international humanitarian
law – the laws of war designed to protect non-combatants in conflict. The resulting humanitarian crisis in southern
and central Somalia has added to the level of suffering. UNICEF announced on 14 February 2008 that some 90,000
children could die in Somalia in the next few months because of inadequate funding for nutrition, water and
sanitation programmes.
Civilians in Somalia are being routinely targeted. Rape, killings and looting have become widespread. Entire
neighbourhoods have been destroyed. Somali civilians have been violently attacked in the conflict areas of southern
and central Somalia, on the roads as they tried to escape and in the camps and settlements to which they fled.
According to dozens of detailed testimonies, incidents of rape and pillaging by Transitional Federal Government
(TFG) forces are frequent and there has been an upsurge in violent abuses by Ethiopian armed forces in Somalia. In
the play there is a strong implication that Asha’s sister was raped and killed by men with guns, and that Asha herself
was raped by Fatima’s son.
Somali journalists and human rights defenders have been attacked by TFG and Ethiopian forces, and by armed
opposition groups.
House-to-house searches and raids by TFG or Ethiopian forces have escalated since October 2007 in and around
Mogadishu, accompanied by violence, including unlawful killings.
About 6,000 civilians were reportedly killed in fighting in the capital Mogadishu and across southern and central
Somalia in 2007 and more than 600,000 Somali civilians were internally displaced. An estimated 335,000 Somali
refugees left the country in 2007, despite enormous obstacles. These included Kenya closing its border with
Somalia, marauding armed combatants and bandits on the roads, and the risks of crossing the Gulf of Aden.
Reaching an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) site or a refugee settlement does not guarantee safety. The displaced
also face lack of access to essential services, including clean water, medical care, and adequate food supplies.
Humanitarian operations are frequently impeded by parties to the conflict and criminal gangs, and the overall level
of insecurity in these areas is extremely high. In addition, humanitarian organizations often lack the requisite
capacity.
Despite the Kenyan government’s closure of its border with Somalia since January 2007, a significant number of
Somali refugees have sought refuge in Kenya, both before and since the closure. According to one local
humanitarian organization interviewed in late November 2007, over the previous year there had been an influx of
some 35,000 Somali refugees into Dadaab camps alone. He said, “There are 40,000 youth there, with no possibility
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of return to Somalia. In addition, some 16,000 arrived since the border closure.” A high level agency official
reported that 1,000 refugees a week were finding their way into Kenya in December 2007.
Kenya’s border closure has served to encourage people-smuggling, while keeping the most vulnerable from reaching
safety. Somali refugees and aid workers with whom Amnesty International spoke said that single Somali men are
able to travel to Kenya much more easily than their families, so many are being separated, with women and children
left behind in IDP settlements in southern and central Somalia.
Lack of access to humanitarian assistance
Funding, access and security for humanitarian organizations have been and continue to be insufficient to provide
adequate support for displaced civilians in southern and central Somalia. Every day humanitarian workers face
checkpoints, road blocks, extortion, car jacking, a lack of acceptance of the impartial nature of their assistance, and
numerous bureaucratic impediments and confusion among government authorities. These obstructions hamper
humanitarian access, travel and humanitarian supplies. The provision of humanitarian assistance is made difficult by
bureaucratic impediments, restricted access, restricted movement and overall insecurity, but also by contempt for
humanitarian operations exhibited by the TFG government, as indicated in speeches by Somali government
authorities.
Sources:
http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/regions/africa/somalia
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR52/009/2008/en/d01d89fc-2106-11dd-b8beab2727142b96/afr520092008eng.html#11.7.%20Conditions%20for%20displaced%20Somalis|outline
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/supportourwork/whereonearth/topten/index.htm
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR52/009/2008/en/d01d89fc-2106-11dd-b8beab2727142b96/afr520092008eng.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1072611.stm
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15. TURKEY
Jemal is a Turkish Kurd, who grew up in the UK. His family fled the persecution many Kurds face in Turkey and
Jemal may well have faced similar challenges when he was sent back there. Below are details on the human rights
situation in Turkey. For more detail on the background see the Timeline.
Head of state Abdullah Gül
Head of government Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Death penalty abolitionist for all crimes
Population 75.8 million
Life expectancy 71.4 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f) 35/26 per 1,000
Adult literacy 87.4 per cent
Background Introduction
 1923 - Assembly declares Turkey a republic and Kemal Ataturk as president.

1928 - Turkey becomes secular: clause retaining Islam as state religion removed from constitution.

1950 - Republic's first open elections, won by opposition Democratic Party.

1960 - Army coup against ruling Democratic Party.

1961- New constitution establishes two-chamber parliament.

1965 - Suleyman Demirel becomes prime minister - a position he is to hold seven times.

1971 - Army forces Demirel's resignation after spiral of political violence.

1974 - Turkish troops invade northern Cyprus.

1980 - Military coup follows political deadlock and civil unrest. Imposition of martial law.

1982 - New constitution creates seven-year presidency, and reduces parliament to single house.

1983 - General election won by Turgut Ozal's Motherland Party (ANAP).

1984 - Turkey recognises "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus."

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launches separatist guerrilla war in southeast.

1992 - 20,000 Turkish troops enter Kurdish safe havens in Iraq in anti-PKK operation.

1993 - Tansu Ciller becomes Turkey's first woman prime minister, and Demirel elected president.

Ceasefire with PKK breaks down.

1995 - Major military offensive launched against the Kurds in northern Iraq, involving some 35,000 Turkish
troops.
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
Ciller coalition collapses. Pro-Islamist Welfare Party wins elections but lacks support to form government two major centre-right parties form anti-Islamist coalition.

Turkey enters EU customs union.

1996 - Centre-right coalition falls. Welfare Party leader Necmettin Erbakan heads first pro-Islamic
government since 1923.

2000 - Ahmet Necdet Sezer takes over from Suleyman Demirel as president.

2001 May - European Court of Human Rights finds Turkey guilty of violating the rights of Greek Cypriots
during its occupation of northern Cyprus.

2002 January - Turkish men are no longer regarded in law as head of the family. The move gives women full
legal equality with men, 66 years after women's rights were put on the statute books.

2002 August - Parliament approves reforms aimed at securing EU membership. Death sentence to be
abolished except in times of war, and bans on Kurdish education and broadcasting to be lifted.

2002 November - Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AK) wins landslide election victory. Party
promises to stick to secular principles of constitution. Deputy leader Abdullah Gul appointed premier.

2003 March - AK leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins seat in parliament. Within days Abdullah Gul resigns
as prime minister and Erdogan takes over.

2003 June-July - Eyeing future EU membership, parliament passes laws easing restrictions on freedom of
speech, Kurdish language rights, and on reducing political role of military.

2004 January - Turkey signs protocol banning death penalty in all circumstances, a move welcomed in EU
circles.

2004 June - State TV broadcasts first Kurdish-language programme.

2005 October - EU membership negotiations officially launched after intense bargaining.

2006 30 September - Kurdish separatist group, the PKK, declares a unilateral ceasefire in operations against
the military.
According to official figures released by the Turkish military for the 1984-2008 period, the Turkish-Kurd conflict
has resulted in the capture of 14,000 PKK members, and the death of 17,000 PKK members, 6,482 soldiers, and
5,560 civilians.
Human Rights Abuses
The following are extracts from the Amnesty International Report on human rights abuses in Turkey during 2008.
Freedom of expression
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Human rights defenders, writers, journalists and others were unjustly prosecuted under unfair laws and subjected to
arbitrary decisions by judges and prosecutors. People expressing dissenting views remained at risk, with individuals
threatened with violence by unknown individuals or groups. Police bodyguards were provided in a number of cases.
For example, nine children, all members of the Diyarbakır Yenişehir Municipality Children’s Choir, were
prosecuted under Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terrorism Law for singing a Kurdish anthem among other songs at a
cultural festival. They were acquitted at the first hearing, but an arrest warrant remained in force for the choir leader,
Duygu Özge Bayar.
Freedom of assembly
Some demonstrations were banned without legitimate reason and those held without permission, particularly in the
Kurdish-populated south-eastern region, were dispersed with excessive force, often before peaceful methods had
been tried. During clashes, police used plastic bullets and live ammunition, resulting in deaths and injuries.
Demonstrators were arrested and ill-treated. In some cases, children were held in adult detention facilities.
Allegations of ill-treatment by security forces during past demonstrations were not adequately investigated.
In October 2008, demonstrations were held across southern and eastern provinces of Turkey to protest against the
alleged ill-treatment of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Reportedly, more than a hundred children were
charged with offences carrying prison sentences of more than 20 years in relation to the demonstrations. In addition,
the Governor of the southern province of Adana threatened to withdraw benefits that allow access to health care and
treatment from the families of children who participated in the demonstrations. The move, a form of collective
punishment, threatened to violate the right of everyone to health and to an adequate standard of living, without
discrimination. Adults and children involved in the sometimes violent confrontations with police were prosecuted
under anti-terrorism laws.
Excessive use of force
Reports increased of police shooting people who allegedly failed to obey warnings to stop. In many cases it could
not be established that a threat of death or serious injury necessitated the use of lethal force. For example, in
November, 14-year-old Ahmet Yıldırım was shot by police officers at close range and paralysed from the waist
down. Police stated that they had suspected Ahmet Yıldırım of stealing the motorcycle he was riding and fired at the
tyres when he refused to stop. Eyewitnesses stated that no warning to stop was given.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Reports of torture and other ill-treatment rose during 2008, especially outside official places of detention but also in
police stations and prisons. People accused of ordinary as well as politically motivated offences were vulnerable to
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ill-treatment. Counter-charges were often brought against individuals who said they had been ill-treated by law
enforcement officials.
Prison conditions
Persistent allegations were made of ill-treatment in prisons and during transfer. Punishments, including solitary
confinement, were arbitrarily imposed on prisoners. Small-group isolation remained a problem across the prison
system for people accused or convicted of politically motivated offences.
In March 2008, the report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture was published on the conditions
of imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan recommending that he receive certain medical tests, that the
material conditions of his detention be improved, and that the Turkish authorities take steps to increase his contact
with the outside world.
Unfair trials
Protracted and unfair trials persisted, especially for those prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation. Convictions
under anti-terrorism laws were often based on insubstantial or unreliable evidence. For example, in June 2008, Murat
Işıkırık was sentenced to seven years in prison for “membership of a terrorist organization” on the basis of evidence
that he participated in the funeral of a PKK member and was pictured giving a “V for victory” sign.
Abuses by armed groups
Armed clashes between the Turkish army and PKK continued and the use of temporary security zones in eastern and
south-eastern provinces increased. Bomb attacks targeting civilians by unknown groups or individuals continued. In
July, for example, 17 people died after a bomb exploded in the Güngören district of Istanbul. In January, nine
civilians died as a result of an apparent PKK attack targeting military personnel in Diyarbakır. The army carried out
military incursions into northern Iraq targeting PKK bases. In October, parliament authorized the armed forces to
make further military interventions in northern Iraq.
In the context of the conflict, Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin faced increased hostility, including harassment,
assaults and attacks on their property perpetrated by unknown individuals or groups. In September, such attacks took
place over several days in Altınova province, western Turkey.
Sources
http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/regions/europe-central-asia/turkey
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1023189.stm
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16. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL LESSON PLANS
Details of a wide range of free human rights education resources touching on issues explored in The Container,
including lesson plans, background information, posters and CDs can be found on www.amnesty.org.uk/education
FREE downloadable educational materials about Refugees include:
‘Time to Flee’ - resources on refugees and asylum to help students understand why people become asylum seekers
and the difficulties they face on leaving their homes and on arrival in another country.
Suitability: 10 – 16 yrs. PSHE Citizenship or Geography
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=11643
‘Seeking safety’ - lesson ideas, especially for primary schools on refugees and asylum. (Produced by Amnesty in
Scotland.)
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_17808.pdf
‘Credit to the Nation‘ - 52 illustrated playing cards featuring refugees who have made major contributions to UK
society. Instructions for games and activities included.
Suitability: 8+
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=11643#credit2thenation
Other Amnesty human rights education materials include resources on:

Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Amnesty International and its work

The Arms Trade

Freedom of Expression

Torture

The Death Penalty

The work of Amnesty International

Poverty and Human Rights

Prisoners of Conscience

Child Soldiers

The Rights of the Child
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
Sexuality

Modern Slavery

Women’s Rights

Young People taking action on Human Rights
For more information, please go to: www.amnesty.org.uk/education
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APPENDIX 1: UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS - 1948
A summary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1. Everyone is free and we should all be treated in the same way.
2. Everyone is equal despite differences in skin colour, sex, religion, language for example.
3. Everyone has the right to life and to live in freedom and safety.
4. No one has the right to treat you as a slave nor should you make anyone your slave.
5. No one has the right to hurt you or to torture you.
6. Everyone has the right to be treated equally by the law.
7. The law is the same for everyone, it should be applied in the same way to all.
8. Everyone has the right to ask for legal help when their rights are not respected.
9. No one has the right to imprison you unjustly or expel you from your own country.
10. Everyone has the right to a fair and public trial.
11. Everyone should be considered innocent until guilt is proved.
12. Every one has the right to ask for help if someone tries to harm you, but no-one can enter your home, open your
letters or bother you or your family without a good reason.
13. Everyone has the right to travel as they wish.
14. Everyone has the right to go to another country and ask for protection if they are being persecuted or are in
danger of being persecuted.
15. Everyone has the right to belong to a country. No one has the right to prevent you from belonging to another
country if you wish to.
16. Everyone has the right to marry and have a family.
17. Everyone has the right to own property and possessions.
18. Everyone has the right to practise and observe all aspects of their own religion and change their religion if they
want to.
19. Everyone has the right to say what they think and to give and receive information.
20. Everyone has the right to take part in meetings and to join associations in a peaceful way.
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21. Everyone has the right to help choose and take part in the government of their country.
22. Everyone has the right to social security and to opportunities to develop their skills.
23. Everyone has the right to work for a fair wage in a safe environment and to join a trade union.
24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure.
25. Everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living and medical help if they are ill.
26. Everyone has the right to go to school.
27. Everyone has the right to share in their community's cultural life.
28. Everyone must respect the 'social order' that is necessary for all these rights to be available.
29. Everyone must respect the rights of others, the community and public property.
30. No one has the right to take away any of the rights in this declaration.
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APPENDIX 2: RESOURCE MATERIALS
Plays
There are many plays that relate to human rights, here are some suggestions:
Ariel Dorfman - Death and the Maiden
- Speak truth to power
Bertolt Brecht – Mother Courage and Her Children
- The Good Person of Szechuan
Athol Fugard - Sizwe Bansi is Dead
Arthur Miller - The Crucible
David Edgar – Testing the Echo
Debbie Tucker Green - Generations
Kani, Ntshona, Fugard - The Island
Harold Pinter - Mountain People
Tadeusz Solbodzianek – Our Class
Various writers – The Great Game (played at the Tricycle Theatre)
Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo – Guantanamo
Winsome Pinnnock - Mules
Ice and Fire – a theatre company who regularly produce readings of new plays on human rights issues – see
www.iceandfire.co.uk
Autobiographies
Jimmy Boyle - A sense of freedom
Nien Chen - Life and death in Shanghai
Ariel Dorfman - Heading South, Looking North
Martin Gilbert - The Boys: the untold story of 732 young concentration camp survivors
Vaclav Havel - Letters to Olga
Harry Hongda Wu - Bitter winds: a memoir of my years in China’s gulag
Ahmed Kathrada - Letters from Robben Island
Arthur Koestler - Dialogue with death
Hugh Lewin - Bandiet – seven years in a South African prison
Nelson Mandela - Long walk to freedom
Rigoberta Menchu - I Rigoberta Menchu, An Indian woman in Guatemala
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Mohamed Nidrani - Kalaat Mgouna – disappeared among the roses
Alicia Portnoy - The little school
Irina Ratushinskaya - Grey is the colour of hope
Nawal al Saadawi - The hidden face of Eve
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich
Jacobo Timerman - Prisoner without a name, cell without a number
Elie Wiesel - Night
Richard Wright - Native son
Dee Brown - Bury my heart at wounded knee – an Indian history of the American West
Novels
Great stories that have been written on human rights themes include:
Mulk Raj Anand - Untouchable; Waiting for the barbarians
J M Coetzee - Life and times of Michael K
Ariel Dorfman - My House Is On Fire
Eduardo Galeano - Memory of fire
Nadine Gordimer - July’s People
Franz Kafka - The Trial
Arthur Koestler - Darkness at Noon
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Toni Morrison - Beloved
George Orwell – 1984
- Animal Farm
Nawal al Saadawi - God Dies by the Nile
Mildred D.Taylor - Roll of thunder, Hear my cry
Vassilis Vassilikos - Z
Music
Here are some suggestions of well known pieces of music that could be used in a human rights assembly or public
event.
Arrested Development – Raising revolution
Joan Baez – We shall overcome
Billy Bragg – Which side are you on?
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- Between the wars
Garth Brooks – We shall be free
James Brown – Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud
Tracy Chapman – Why?
The Clash – Know your rights
Bob Dylan – Masters of war
Peter Gabriel – Biko
Woody Guthrie – Deportee (Plane wreck at Los Gatos)
- This land is your land
Billie Holliday – Strange Fruit
Chrissie Hynde, Cher, Neneh Cherry – Love can build a bridge
Michael Jackson – Black or white
Jamiroquai – Emergency on Plant Earth
John Lennon – Imagine
- Give peace a chance
Trini Lopez – If I had a hammer
Bob Marley and the Wailers – Get up! Stand up!
- Redemption song
- Exodus
Euan McColl – The Eagle and the dove
- Go down you murderers
- I’m a free born man of the travelling people
George Michael – Freedom
Youssou N’Dour, Neneh Cherry – Seven seconds
Oasis – Some might say
Public enemy – Fight the power
Pete Seeger – Which side are you on?
- Flowers of peace
- Peat bog soldiers
Labi Siffre – Something inside so strong
Special AKA – Free Nelson Mandela
Sting – They dance alone
- Message in a bottle
Sweet Honey in the Rock – We who believe in freedom cannot rest
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U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday;
Pride (in the name of love)
Suzanne Vega – Luka
Films
Again, there are many but here are a few suggestions:
12 Angry Men (1957) U Dir. Sidney Lumet. (Henry Fonda, Lee Cobb, Jack Klugman)
A hard look at death penalty through the jury system.
Bandit Queen (1994) 18 Dir. Shekhar Kapur, Mike Higgins. (Aditya Srivastava, Agesh Markam).
Tragic and violent story of India’s most famous and feared outlaw and how she eventually surrendered to the police.
Hindi dialogue with English subtitles
Battle of Algiers (1965) 15 Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo. (Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin).
Chronicles the Algerian struggle for independence through the viewpoint of a single freedom fighter. Italian with
subtitles.
Beyond Rangoon (1995) 15 Dir. John Boorman. (Patricia Arquette).
Laura Bowman becomes stranded in the Burmese capital of Rangoon after her passport is stolen. Whilst waiting for
a replacement she takes a dangerous unofficial guided tour of a country riven by human rights abuses.
Butterfly’s tongue (2000) 15 Dir. Jose Luis Cuerda. (Fernando Fernán Gómez, Manuel Lozano).
Captures the relationship between a boy and his kindly old teacher in fascist Spain.
Carla’s song (1998) 15 Dir. Ken Loach. (Robert Carlyle, Oyanka Cabezas).
A bus driver falls for a refugee from Nicaragua but she remains haunted by the death of her boyfriend in the
Nicaraguan revolution.
Cry Freedom (1987) PG Dir. Richard Attenborough. (Kevin Kline, Josette Simon, Wabei Siyolwe).
A dramatic re-telling of the life of South African anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko, as seen through the eyes of his
friend, liberal white newspaper editor, Donald Woods. A devastating indictment of racial oppression in South Africa.
Dead Man Walking (1995) 15 Dir. Tim Robbins. (Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn).
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The true story of Sister Helen Prejean and her relationship with a convicted murderer on death row. Examines the
issue of capital punishment from a humanitarian perspective.
Death and the Maiden (1994) 18 Dir. Roman Polanski. (Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley).
A psychological thriller based on Ariel Dorfman’s play about the legacy of torture.
Empire of the Sun (1987) PG Dir. Stephen Spielberg. (Christian Bale, John Malkovich).
Recounts the perilous events befalling a small boy whose privileged lifestyle is shattered when the armed forces of
Imperial Japan invade Shanghai on December 8th, 1941, following their bombing of Pearl Harbour.
Family Life (1971) 15 Dir. Ken Loach. (Sandy Ratcliff, Bill Dean).
Gruelling story of a young girl who suffers schizophrenia after a traumatic abortion. Her parents commit her to an
asylum, believing they know what’s best for her.
La Haine (1995) 15 Dir. Matthieu Kassovitz. (Vincent Cassel, Matthieu Kassovitz).
Angry, anti-authoritarian French film about three young men who decide to take on the police after a friend is
brutally beaten.
In the Name of the Father (1993) 15 Dir. Jim Sheridan. (Daniel Day Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite).
Dealing with the events surrounding the Guildford pub bombing in 1974 and the subsequent 15-year fight for justice,
the film portrays a nation desperate to find culprits at any cost, however immoral, illegal or brutal.
Kandahar (2001) PG Dir. Moshen Makhmalbaf. (Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai).
Story of Nafas, who escaped from Afghanistan to Canada when she was a child, and her quest to prevent her sister in
Afghanistan from killing herself.
The Killing Fields (1984) 15 Dir. Roland Joffé. (Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor).
Uncompromising film about two men who become caught up in the Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia.
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) 15 Dir. Hector Babenko. (William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga).
A gay man and a political prisoner are cell mates in a South American prison. Based on the novel by Manuel Puig.
Midnight Express (1978) 18 Dir. Alan Parker. (Brad Davis, Irene Miracle).
True story of a man who had to escape from appalling prison conditions in Turkey.
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Missing (1982) PG Dir. Costa Gavras. (Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek).
Political thriller, based on a true story and set in Chile after the military coup.
Mississippi Burning (1988) 18 Dir. Alan Parker. (Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe).
Three young civil rights activists are murdered in cold blood by the Ku Klux Klan and lie buried in a Mississippi
swamp. Two FBI agents are on the killers’ trail. Based on a true story from the 1960s.
The Official Story (1985) 18 Dir. Eduardo Mignogna. (Norma Aleandro, Federico Luppi).
An Argentine teacher’s investigation into her adopted child’s parentage reveals levels of political corruption so
abhorrent that the illusions of her past life are irrevocably shattered.
Once Were Warriors (1994) 18 Dir. Lee Tamahori. (Temuera Morrison, Rena Owen).
Race and human rights in New Zealand. Brutal but powerful story drawn from the culture of poverty and alienation
enveloping contemporary Maori life.
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest (1975) 18 Dir. Milos Forman. (Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher).
Story of a rebellious and individualistic mental patient who battles with a nurse for his rights as a human being.
Philadelphia (1993) 12 Dir. Jonathan Demme. (Denzil Washington, Jason Robards, Tom Hanks).
Two men, an AIDS sufferer and a black lawyer, launch an historic struggle against society’s ignorance and
intolerance of AIDS.
Salaam Bombay (1988) 15 Dir. Mira Nair. (Shafiq Syed, Hansa Vithal).
An 11-year-old Indian boy accidentally ends up in Bombay instead of his village and is exposed to the world of
street children, drugs and prostitution. Hindi dialogue with subtitles.
Schindler’s List (1993) 15 Dir. Stephen Spielberg. (Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes).
A true story about heroism during World War II. Catholic war profiteer Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) risked his
life and went bankrupt to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps.
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) 15 Dir. Michael Winterbottom. (Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson).
The true story of British journalist Michael Nicholson and his time in war-torn Sarajevo reporting on the civil war.
Nicholson decides to evacuate a group of children himself when all other help fails.
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Wilde (1997) 15 Dir. Brian Gilbert. (Stephen Fry, Jude Law).
A moving study of how the conflict between individual desires and social expectations can ruin lives, dramatising
the trial of Oscar Wilde.
A World Apart (1988) PG Dir. Chris Menges. (Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May).
Harrowing true story told through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl growing up in a violent South Africa. Her family life
is turned upside down when her mother is seized by the authorities, thrown into prison and tortured as a result of her
fight for justice.
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APPENDIX 3: EXTRACT FROM THE CONTAINER
AHMAD:
Where's the Agent?
JEMAL:
Do you know where we are?
AHMAD:
Did he give you some food?
JEMAL:
Do you know where we are?
Do you speak English?
MARIAM:
I don't know the name. The north of Italy. Very north.
JEMAL:
Near the border?
Mariam nods.
JEMAL:
The border with Switzerland?
MARIAM:
With France. We will go through France.
JEMAL:
Good. That's good. Two-three more days.
Mariam sits.
MARIAM:
How long have you been in here?
AHMAD shrugs.
AHMAD:
Is it three days or four?
Jemal nods.
AHMAD:
We came across from Turkey, through the Balkans.
We have no food left, and only a little water.
How long have you been travelling?
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MARIAM:
I was in Milan for a month. But I left my country three months ago.
AHMAD:
The agent, he's supposed to bring us food, that was the agreement, but he hasn't brought anything.
JEMAL:
Where you from, then?
MARIAM:
From Afghanistan.
AHMAD:
(in Pashto) Welcome.
Pa her ram ghlasp.
JEMAL:
Speak in English.
AHMAD:
(in Pashto) He likes to know everything that's going on.
Hagha khawkh gain chi pam mar sap ho shi.
AHMAD laughs loudly.
JEMAL:
We're all Europeans now. Speak in English.
AHMAD:
You don't like to feel you don't know what's going on, do you? She is from my country.
(To Mariam) Did he give you food?
JEMAL:
See how friendly he is? He only talks if he wants something.
AHMAD:
The agent said he would JEMAL:
Yes yes, he said he would bring food, he said he would stop to let us out, he said many things.
AHMAD:
I don't want to starve to death inside this lorry.
JEMAL:
Starve! You! (he laughs).
Starve!
AHMAD:
What?
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JEMAL:
You don't look as if you're starving.
AHMAD:
Now they're laughing at me. You people. You don't know what I've been through to get here.
JEMAL:
We're all the same here.
AHMAD:
Oh yes? I don't think we are all the same.
JEMAL:
What’s that supposed to mean?
AHMAD:
We are not all the same. I should not be travelling like this. I am a businessman.
JEMAL:
Oh, I see. You're saying you're better than me?
AHMAD:
All I'm saying is, we all different.
JEMAL:
Yes we’re different. You’re fat. I’m thin. But she's even thinner than me. See?
We've got no food. But has she? We don't know.
MARIAM:
I have only a little food.
AHMAD:
You have some?
MARIAM:
I have some bread. And chocolate.
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