Lost Goose Theatre Company’s performance Havarie is about immigration and shipwreck and more, Marie Keiser-Nielsen tells David Schembri

Among the great stories in history – real and imagined – the sea voyage is a perennial staple. Be it St Paul’s shipwreck on Malta, Odysseus’ years at sea or the tragic crossings of migrants from Africa into Europe, people have always had to face the sea before they got to their destination.

It is fitting, then, that Lost Goose Theatre Company, a London-based ensemble made up of four expats, chose to base Havarie, a physical theatre show, on a sea voyage. The all-female ensemble of physical actors, from Denmark, Ireland, Canada and Germany, was formed when the four met while doing an MA in physical theatre in London.

“We come not only from different countries, but also very versatile artistic backgrounds,” Marie Keiser-Nielsen, who is Danish but lives in Malta, says. “This is a great aid for the devising process, because we all pitch in with very different perspectives.”

Louise Hynes is a dancer and choreographer for the group, and also deals with physical training, Mona Becker is a professional dramaturge and deals with the script, Hannah Martin has worked in several countries as a technician and stage designer, while Keiser-Nielsen structures the devising process and guides the acting.

Havarie is a German word which means ‘loss at sea’. “It is a story about immigration and shipwreck and the hope for a better future beyond the waves. It is also a story about the love between two sisters, about the day their village was attacked and about finding the courage to let the past go.”

“The fact that all four members of the company are expats made the theme of migration resonate with us. We were also heavily influenced by what is happen-ing in the world at the moment, specifically the horrible stories of boat migrants drowning,” she says.

“We are, of course, affected by the world around us and the tragedies that take place at the coasts of Europe, which is also why Malta became an important place for us to work.”

We were also heavily influenced by what is happening in the world... the horrible stories of boat migrants drowning

Is there a political point to it, though? The reason for this story to be told, Keiser-Nielsen says, is not merely as a political statement but as a way of expressing a “deeply-rooted search for happiness inherent in us all, this drive which through history has made humans leave their homes and travel to new, strange places.”

In devising the piece, a process which took 10 long months and which is ongoing, with each performance building on the previous one, the company had a whole sea of stories to dive into, eventually finding Gaelic folklore which lifted the story out of the contemporary context and “into a magical realm in order to make the story more approachable and universal, without losing sight of the core of the story – human relationships.”

“We didn’t want to generalise, we wanted to show human beings the audience can relate to, not symbols or a general depiction of boat immigration.”

Lost Goose Theatre Company also owes its name to migration… to a point. “Geese migrate,” Keiser-Nielsen smiles. “And we do get lost a lot! It’s part of our process, to search, attempt and make mistakes.”

Since the company has its rehearsal studio in London, Keiser-Nielsen has had her fair share of voyages and border crossings to get to rehearsals, however the group has rehearsed as well as carried out research with NGOs here in Malta. “We manage to work together across borders because we are a close-knit ensemble,” she explains.

Ultimately, in sea voyages, the protagonist more often than not ends up being the sea itself. “The sea is a place of magic, mystery and most of all memories,” Keiser-Nielsen says. A line from the performance reads: “You find the greatest treasures at the bottom of the sea”.

“Here we’re not talking about gold or material things, but the stories of the drowned,” she explains. “The stories and memories of hope and fear, the dreams that made people cross oceans in an attempt for a better life or freedom. The sea is the voice of those who sailed across it or died trying, it is the unknown, it is as mild and caring in the aid of the journey as it is treacherous and dangerous.”

Havarie shows on Friday, Saturday and next Sunday at 8pm at the Salesian Theatre, Sliema.

www.teatrusalesjan.com