Home and away | 9 July 2015

Refugee crisis in the Mediterranean! Fear not. Anders Lustgarten and his trusty rescue ship are here to save mankind. Lampedusa consists of two monologues, one Italian, one English, which tackle the problem at home and abroad. We meet Stephano, a cartoon fisherman with a Zorba beard and a chunky woollen sweater who lives on Italy’s southernmost salient about 70 miles off the African coast. He follows an improbable path from xenophobia to enlightened altruism. At first he mistrusts the runaways whose corpses choke his native shore. He asks survivors why they don’t ‘speak the language’. ‘We do,’ they reply, in English. ‘This is Europe’s language.’ He saves a drowning African from a shoal of cadavers and learns that the man’s fiancée is due to join him on Lampedusa. By some miracle she arrives safely and Stephano, by now guest of honour at their wedding, is overcome with spiritual gratitude. He acclaims them for giving his country ‘life and hope’.