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Her Green Hell

Four stars

 When seventeen-year-old Juliane Koepcke took a flight with her mother from Lima to Pucallpa in Peru, little did she know she would be the sole survivor of the plane crash that followed. Over the next eleven days, Juliane navigated a rainforest where hidden depths hide crocodiles and other creatures, fell 10,000 feet, was almost eaten by maggots, and somehow lived to tell the tale.  

 

This remarkable true story is brought to life by Sophie Kean in a near gymnastic display as Juliane. As the script moves back and forth with Juliane’s reminiscences, Kean’s movements seem to embody her life flashing before her in Emma Howlett’s deftly realised production. Moving from the row of aeroplane seats that make up the bulk of Eleanor Wintour’s ingenious set, Kean utilises paper planes, origami creatures and toyshop miniatures to bring the jungle to life. A glossary of some of the local bestiary is flashed onto a screen behind her, as if accompanying a museum exhibit as Sarah Spencer’s soundscape rumbles.

 

This isn’t the first time Juliane’s story has been dramatised. Giuseppe Maria Scotes fictionalised it in their 1974 film, Miracles Still Happen. Juliane herself revisited the crash site in Wings of Hope, a 1998 TV documentary by Werner Herzog, who was almost booked on the same plane. Here, however, Hewlett’s production for the new TheatreGoose company makes the story their own in a vivid and occasionally heart stopping story of survival against all odds. 

 

Summerhall, Red Lecture Theatre until 27th August, 1.15pm.


The List, August 2023

 

Ends

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