We interviewed Henry C Krempels, playwright of The Sleeper.
The show is based on your own personal experience on an overnight train in Europe at the height of the immigration crisis – what happened?
I was living in Italy at the time and would take the train whenever I came home (I have a fear of flying). Over about a year or so, I noticed the train had a strange collection of people, from the ones in full pyjamas, to the ones who spent the night hammering home miniature bottles of wines, to the cheap seats, where I was. The people here often had huge amounts of luggage, and after talking to a few of them, I found they were either moving home or moving away from wherever they’d come from.
One night, I came back to my cabin and found a woman sleeping in my bed. I sort of stood over her, trying to figure out who she was and did that very British thing of assuming I had got the wrong bed or something like that. One of the other passengers in the cabin shouted something in Arabic at her and she bolted up, pushed me out the way, went down the corridor and checked bed after bed after bed until she disappeared from sight. After that, I went and spoke with the train manager which sort of initiated a search. That last bit, is also a lot of what the play is about.
How did the show evolve from there?
Well, I wrote this story up for VICE Magazine, during which time I desperately tried to find her/find out about her. I wanted to help her somehow. I think I wanted it to be one of those good news stories you see on Twitter. Let’s find this woman, maybe set up a crowdfunding page, help her out, get her some money, make sure she’s safe.
Then I started to examine what it was I wanted from that. What I was doing, and why I was doing it. The whole thing felt skewed. I knew nothing about her and what if, if I found her and she didn’t want to be found? There was an assumption that she wanted my help and that’s something I challenge heavily in the play.
These questions, along with the memory of that moment, felt very suited to the play form. So I wrote something for a scratch night in January 2017. I organised some workshops with refugees and asylum seekers who might be able to help me with this story and who themselves might like to tell their stories. Then I went away and put together something more whole. We performed it in Edinburgh, got great feedback and now, this time, I’ve gone away again and I’ve made sure it’s hitting all the right notes.
You interviewed Syrian asylum seekers as part of the process – how did you incorporate these into the show?
The play really plays with the line between fact and fiction (which I happen to think doesn’t exist). I’ve interwoven the two, things people have told me and things I’ve found out but I think it would be impossible to just lift them apart. The interviews, some of which is in the text verbatim, felt like rock on which the play was built. If you see it, you’ll see the play is sort of split into two worlds. The playing out of ideas and situations and the factual which sort of takes the form of memory and a dialogue with the woman in my bed. The two are constantly talking with each other.
Having said all that, pretty much everything in it, in some way or another, happened to someone.
What has been the most challenging aspect of bringing this show to life?
The questions about representation and whose story this is were easily the most difficult part of this In fact, that part has been so challenging, I organised some workshops with the Young Vic called Whose Life is it Anyway? With the aim of dissecting refugee theatre (with those who make it). It’s so difficult and so interesting how you put stories on stage that a) don’t belong to you (although in this case, I am in the story too) and b) belong to people who don’t have much of a voice. What’s my role in that and how do I go about it?
I think the other thing was making this an entertaining piece of theatre. Why put on refugee theatre if you’re just going to hit people where it hurts and then lecture them when you’ve done that. I wanted The Sleeper to be, if nothing else, a chance to show that this stuff, which is hard and problematic and important can also be a good night at the theatre.
What’s been the best part of the process?
One moment which I think the others will agree with me on:
We were doing a workshop and one of our participants was in charge of directing a scene between the train manager and the character who represents me. It’s a moment where we’re really looking into the soul of the train manager and trying to understand why he does what he does.
Halfway through, this woman (I ‘m not going to say her name but she has been through this sort of journey herself) stopped the two actors, stood up and made them do the whole scene lying on top of each other. As soon as she asked them to start again, she burst out laughing, a big, gut laugh which was totally contagious and spread around the room. For the next five minutes everyone lost it and was basically rolling around the room. There was something so cathartic about that moment, and made me realise lots of things, one of which was that she was one of the most courageous women I’ve ever come across and that I couldn’t admire anyone more than I did her, right then.
Tell us about the ‘Refugee Fund’?
Well, we want to make The Sleeper and the stories contained in it, as accessible as possible to the people whose voices are represented on stage. Depending on how much we can raise, the fund will to pay for refugees and asylum seeker based in London to come to see our play for free, and then pay for them to get there and get home.
Theatre is expensive and can be seen as exclusive. I think a lot of people don’t think theatre is for them. And this is a big challenge of ours (Anima’s) to do whatever we can, however small or large, to make that change.
What impact do you hope ‘The Sleeper’ will have on the audience?
I think that sort of depends on who the audience is. I hope that anyone seeing it who has been through that experience, or something similar, can find something true in it -something recognisable.
I think for people who haven’t been through that experience, my main aim is to alter, in some way, their ‘idea ‘of a refugee and that experience. It is so easy to slip into pity. If you think about the images we use for refugees. That dreadful image of the boy drowned on the beach. I know that eventually had a positive impact and made people realise that something needs to be done. But really? Are we going to wait until that kind of thing happens, the most tragic thing possible, to do something? I think it’s about finding something human and not relying on trauma. If those workshops and this play has taught me anything (they taught me a lot) it’s that people are way more than the trauma they’ve endured.
Describe ‘The Sleeper’ in three words.
Is this real?
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