How Not to Drown review — a stinging indictment of our treatment of refugees

★★★★☆
Co-authored by Nicola McCartney and the actor Dritan Kastrati, this autobiographical play is a sometimes harrowing yet frequently funny account of a child asylum seeker coming to the UK early this century. Originally presented at the Traverse in Edinburgh during the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe, the Wigan-based company ThickSkin’s touring production for a cast of five — including Kastrati — is a highly physical, cinematically fluid and increasingly involving feat of theatrical storytelling. It is also a stinging indictment of the downside of the British care system’s treatment of political refugees.

True and personal stories tend to have the edge over drily documented accounts of socio-political upheaval. This one is shot through with emotional authenticity. Kastrati was only 11 when his father sent him, alone,