New show marks Kindertransport's 85th anniversary

A show marking the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport has kicked off in Essex.

A group of young actors have started performances on Harwich beach of From Here On.

Harwich is the port where the first children arrived from Germany on 2 December 1938.

The production by the Gecko theatre company, based in Ipswich, and Good Chance, based in London, involves young people who all have personal or family connections to migration.

Performer Pen said it was very emotional and resonated with his own family's history.

"My family are immigrants. I'm an immigrant in this country as well," he said.

"I've moved around at least three times in my life and it's that constant change that's portrayed so well on stage. It hits you – it's emotional."

The show focuses on themes of displacement, movement and children being forced to find a new home.

Amit Lahav, artistic director at Gecko, said the story of trying to find safe passage was particularly relevant today, and the piece helped people connect and empathise.

"I like to think that everyone has a migration story, because they do whether you know it or not," he said.

"If you go back far enough, someone in your family has moved or has had to move.

"It's not a story that is special to a few people. It's a human story."

Joe Robertson, co-artistic director at Good Chance, said Harwich was a particularly meaningful place to begin the shows due to its connection with the Kindertransport.

"It's such an incredible story of welcome, of normal people coming together," he said.

There are "a lot of lessons" in the Kindertransport story for today, he added.

"We wanted to create a piece of work that remembers that history, celebrates it and connects it to other welcomes, other movements, other people arriving today."

The show will be performed elsewhere along the Kindertransport route, including in London, Berlin and The Hague.

The first performances were on Friday, and there will be four more 35-minute free performances on Sunday at 11:00 BST, 13:15 BST, 15:30 BST and 17:40 BST at Harwich Yachting Beach.

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