Numbers

A raft-full of African migrants is found floating and close to death by a Spanish trawler fishing in the Mediterranean.  Denied docking by Malta, the boat soon runs short of supplies.  Back in Spain, the craft’s owner struggles to bat away the bad publicity, while in Brussels the concept of European solidarity is put severely to the test.  Meanwhile, the crew on board try desperately to keep themselves and their new-found guests from starvation.

No.  No way, not that.  We’ve already lost four fishing days.  Do the maths; you like numbers, don’t you?  Huh?  Come on…  Say it… You know…  I know you know.  The whole crew knows.  Even they know.  24,000 euros.  24,000 euros overboard.  We’re not gonna lose what little we have caught.  And don’t start with your stories.  This isn’t a pleasure cruise.  I joined this boat to work and feed my family.  I’ve got a six-month-old baby.  What do you want me to tell the wife?  That we stuffed our faces with shrimp off the Maltese coast?  No way.

Numbers was written during the Royal Court International Residency in 2009, and was later performed at the Segal Center in New York as part of PEN World Voices, directed by Tamilla Woodard; in Washington, DC, and at Theatre Asylum, Los Angeles, presented by The Vagrancy.  In August 2016 it was staged at the Jeff Goldberg Studio, Mumbai.

July 2018, Dash Arts Eurosquat at Latitude Festival

April and June 2017, Entity Theatre in Munich, Frankfurt and Salzburg.

December 2015 at Rutgers-NJIT, directed by Maria Aladren.  

The published playtext is available here.

Contact me for more details.  

Back to translation page, or see more about my work with the Royal Court.