Norwich Playhouse

> Norwich Playhouse

We've all got baggage – emotional and otherwise – but it's rare to see it collected up and its contents spilled out on stage.

In its new play by Daniel Jamieson, however, Theatre Alibi did just that: each performer arriving on stage with a bag (appropriately) which they emptied of life stories as the play progressed.

And every rucksack or suitcase held not just one life history, but many.

Jamieson had collected true tales of home from all kinds of people from all kinds of places.

Turkey, Australia, India all tumbled out before us in a heap of glittering words held together in a web of nostalgia.

From memories of first love on the Bosphorous, to the taste of spaghetti bolognese on toast for breakfast in Australia, each anecdote had its share of homesickness – longing for a past which could only be recaptured in describing it to others.

The set, a zigzagging track that stretched up to the sky, might sound like a bit of an obvious metaphor for the path we all share in life, and perhaps pointed to a certain lack of adventure in the play as a whole... but still, I'm a big fan of the work of this visionary company.