First created in 2000 as a response to the Balkans crisis, Macedonian playwright Goran Stefanovski’s Hotel Europa remains all too relevant to the ever-increasing flow of refugees from war-torn countries incapable of sustaining them.

“Europe should be a common home for us all,” claims a highly stressed but putting-a-brave-face-on-it Social Worker (Lydia Peckham). “We must not let Hell happen again.” And when she adds, “It is Europe that will decide the fate of the world,” I sense an allegorical resonance in the looming spectre of a Trumped-up USA.

In the 16 years since the play premiered we have become much more aware that capitalism-without-boarders – including an amoral (if not psychopathic) arms industry – is deciding the fate of the world; that elected governments are too often in its thrall and the people they supposedly represent have very low status in the grotesque quest for ever-expanding growth and profit.

Hotel Europa certainly puts displaced people at the effect of exploiters, while book-ending and threading it through with the timeless and universal desire for ‘home’. The existential question of whether people are victims of external forces or predestination, or the authors of their own destinies, is up for scrutiny as we watch them do as they feel they must to survive or even, sometimes, contribute.   

Circe (Ella Gilbert) and Odysseus (Tyler Wilson-Kokiri) are revisited in stylised modern mode to reincarnate the temptations of a lustful present versus the desire to return to the more sustaining arms of Penelope and home. Live projection emphasises the dominance of Circe as the bloody ghost of Penelope while Odysseus impressively battles unseen forces in attempting to reach his jacket.  

A cross-gendered MC – credited as Bellhop (William Moffit) – apologises for the mess, seems to run out of steam and literally has to pull himself up as he recalls the past and attempts to orientate us towards the next phase …

As part of the build-up to the launch of the titular Hotel Europa, Melissa, a Roving Reporter (Gilbert) interviews three crammed-together refugees – Boyfriend (Thomas Clarke), Girlfriend (Francesca Berge) and Sister (Peckham) – who seem to make light of their deprivation, presumably because they are excited about being on the telly (just guessing here).

A Caretaker (Clarke) morphs into a drunkard who strips naked and describes himself as a “bloody mongrel” who revels in scoring every benefit he can while portending the inevitability of the revolution.

By this time I’m wondering about the political position of the script overall and finding the purpose of the dramatisation to be more elusive than allusive. Is this really beneficiary bashing or does it presuppose the audience will see this as sending up a libertarian stereotyping of a wannabe libertine bludger while warning us this is where the revolution will find its groundswell?  

When a Bride (Ellie Neal) and Bridegroom (Moffatt) in their honeymoon suite find themselves unconvinced that “West is best”, it is their mutual decision to go back home (to the East presumably) that provokes hot and lustful consummation.

And so the vignettes continue: a professor (Clarke) is tracked down by a Visitor (Berge) and academic study of ‘Blood Revenge’ morphs into a suicidal quest; a singer (Neal) in a classic sparkling sheath frock treats us to a punk rock version of ‘What a Wonderful World’ …

The TV studio launch of Hotel Europa forms a centrepiece of sorts, where the preening of property developer ‘Prince’ Igor (Clarke), a cockney wide-boy whose rags-to-riches story is the media hook – is undercut by complaints that running a hotel for dogs and cats would be more profitable and there is no recognition for the manager who has to deal with all the red tape and paper work.

The Sleeping Beauty myth is resurrected with the Saviour (Wilson-Kokiri) expecting a blowjob from his ‘Princess’ (Berge) only to get his come-uppance. The biblical injunction to turn swords into ploughshares is reversed so that war can be learned by a new generation. A Drifter (Peckham), whose visa is invalid and passport has expired, encounters an Angel (Moffatt) who promises to take her home …

All this is enacted superbly, often with impressive physicality – not least Ella Gilbert’s linking piece on a swivel chair, and William Moffatt and Lydia Peckam’s ‘take me home’ finale (which evokes Picasso’s Guernica for me). My sketching in the narrative elements will in no way spoil your appreciation as it is the way it is done – the performances and production values – which make it memorable.

Hotel Europa was originally performed as a promenade play, with a cast of 25 and nine different directors, in specially adapted ‘derelict building’ spaces. An audience of 300 would be split into six groups of 50, moving from room to room – guided by solo characters – to witness various scenes. Each group therefore saw it in a different order with a different narrative flow, although all would convene in a large space for the big central scene.[i] Most of the scenes, then, would have been played at a relatively intimate level.

Although director Anna Marbrook and her collaborating designers – Kasia Pol (set, costumes and props) and Doug Bonallack (lighting) – have done an impressive job of reconfiguring the play for a single location, it has to be said the acoustics in the Te Whaea theatre are problematic when the stage is spread down the entire length with nothing to contain or baffle the sound. Mostly the actors seem aware that shouting is as counterproductive as being too soft – but more than once they are subverted by pulsating sound elements that blot out key syllables, words or phrases. (A random survey of all ages afterwards indicates the acoustic are a problem for everyone.)

The trade-off is a varied spread of wall and floor textures, a large AV projection screen, a spectacular clear plastic curtain and a generous space for the actors to play in – ably abetted by a stage crew wrangling microphones and rostra, and cleaning up various messes. But in this configuration we are far less involved than we would have been in a series of smaller rooms.  

That said, while I find the play less than stimulating politically, this small-cast ‘large crew Hotel Europa production offers excellent challenges to Toi Whakaari’s graduand acting, design and production students, and they meet those challenges with a skill that assures us theatre’s future is in good hands.  

[Hotel Europa plays in parallel with Dying For Itwhich will be reviewed tomorrow.]

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer