Subtitled ‘Losing Famagusta‘, Lorna Eleonora Vassiliades’s The Suitcase is her own coming of age story, from birth in Essex to Greek Cypriot parents to the age of twelve.
Central to the story are themes of belonging and displacement. In England, there is no one to play with “the foreigner”, so young Lorna takes refuge in books and records.
Moving back to the place in Cyprus that means home, Varosha, Famagusta, with its beautiful beaches and close communities, gives a safe haven for a while, but politics forces it apart when the Turks invade.
Opening the show in a silent scene, holding up the flags of the nations involved in the Cypriot occupation, is a powerful shorthand to focus our minds. Greece, Turkey, the UK, Russia, the USA.
The story is personal, but the message is universal. Children flourish in the right place and understand more than we imagine. Of course, there are parallels to today as children in war zones are bombed out or forced away from their safe havens.
For Lorna Vassiliades, her heritage is a matter of pride and happy memories. She tells us of the beauty of what is now a ghost town (only opened for visits again in 2020). A happy place sealed up and lost.
She explains the daily ritual of the women who shell peas, her grandfather’s yard supermarket, her mum’s pampering at the hair salon, her furtive reading of Jackie magazine.
The family she loved, the places where she played. Being a refugee who has to find a way to belong. And what you take along with you when you assume you will one day go home.
Working with director Pedro Perez Rothstein and movement director Despoina Christianoudi, a play is created that draws on politics, culture, and the innocence of childhood.
There is a text, but also mime, voiceover, snatches of records – we are even invited to join in at one point – and a slideshow of images, ultimately devastating.
Accompanied by an exhibition that presents the items Lorna and her family took from Famagusta (diary, books, a doll, stamp collection), The Suitcase presents a reality for many we often ignore.
Now and again in the vast stage of Theatro Technis a line or two is lost, and some words are left untranslated for English speakers, but this is a cleverly structured show which clearly means a lot to its charismatic creator.
The Suitcase was performed at Camden Fringe on the fiftieth anniversary of the occupation and flight from Famagusta.
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For more information on Lorna Vassiliades, you can visit her website.