Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea
By Emmanuele Aldrovandi
It’s the near future and Europe has failed. A domino effect of nationalist, isolationist policies has left the continent’s economies on the brink of collapse, and citizens of the countries who closed their borders to immigrants are forced to flee across the seas.
In a claustrophobic shipping container, three unnamed travellers place their lives at the mercy of a mysterious people-smuggler. Forced to exist on the brink between civility and chaos, they pray that they will reach their destination. And yet there are natural – and human – forces at work which are far beyond their control.
This darkly comic, absurdist, and political piece offers us a refracted story of European migration – asking us how well we would fare if we were forced to make a perilous journey across the sea, and what lengths we would go to in order to survive.
Playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi is one of Italy’s foremost theatre-makers. His work has been performed across Europe and the United States. This production transfers from the Seven Dials Playhouse, where it was first performed to British audiences in July 2022.
Riva Theatre and The Playwright’s Laboratory in association with Park Theatre
-
Evenings
19.45
Thu & Sat15.15
-
Content warnings
Themes of sexual violence, explicit language and cannibalism.
Gallery

In the press
"Dynamic and stimulating production... a memorable 90 minutes"
Morning Star
"Well-produced, fascinatingly staged production"
All That Dazzles
"Ambitious, darkly funny and absurd"
Everything Theatre
"Tests our notions of what is true and what is untrue"
Always Time for Theatre
"The actors are very effective throughout"
The Artiscape
"Absurdist black humour shape-shifts into smart thriller"
Broadway World
"Intriguingly genre-defying and challenging"
Broadway Baby
"Well worth a look"
Fairy Powered Productions
"A conversation-inducing masterclass"
The Obscurity
"A true black comedy"
Theatre Weekly
"A committed cast"
LondonTheatre1
Cast & Creatives
-
Will Bishop
The Tall One
Will Bishop
The Tall One
Will Bishop is a London-based actor represented by Global Artists. Recent credits include Rani Takes On The World (Big Finish Audio), Just Be Good (Hen & Chickens Theatre) as well as playing The Tall One in the initial run of Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea (Seven Dials Playhouse). He is also a writer, and alongside his writing partner Colm Gleeson has penned the plays I Have Heard You Calling in the Night (Union Theatre), and Anadiplosis (Hen & Chickens Theatre). He has also written two short films, and is currently developing a few different projects for television and radio.
-
Felix Garcia Guyer
The Burly One
Felix Garcia Guyer
The Burly One
Felix is a British-Chilean actor who trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduating in 2018. He orginated the role of The Burly One at the Seven Dials Playhouse run of Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea. Credits incude: The Spanish Princess (STARZ), Sanctuary (Studio Canal), The Man Who Fell to Earth (Paramount+), LIFT (Netflix), Treasure Island (Miracle Theatre), Kraven the Hunter (Sony Marvel), DI RAY (ITV) and Homegrown (BFI short film). He is also a combat choreographer and fight performer and has choreographed for both stage and screen.
-
Yasmine Haller
The Beautiful One
Yasmine Haller
The Beautiful One
Yasmine Haller is a Swiss and Egyptian actor. She first started her training in Paris at Cours Florent, then moved to London to pursue the MFA in Professional Acting at LAMDA, from which she graduated in 2020. That same year, she was shortlisted for the Spotlight Prize, alongside finalists from the top UK drama schools. Recent acting credits include the short film A Mistake with the Chairs directed by Alistair Petrie, This Last Piece of Sky performed at The Space, the initial run of Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea at Seven Dials Playhouse, and All Will Be Well created by NOMAD, the theater company she co-founded.
In September 2022, she integrated the renowned Comédie-Française in Paris for a yearlong contract, working alongside directors Éric Ruf, Clément Hervieu-Léger, Simon Delétang, Christophe Honoré and Lisaboa Houbrechts. She recently performed and sang in the cabaret show La Ballade de Souchon, about French singer Alain Souchon, directed by Françoise Gillard.
-
Marco Young
The Stocky One
Marco Young
The Stocky One
Marco trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Stage credits include: Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea (Seven Dials Playhouse), Another America (Park Theatre), The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), My Cousin Rachel (Bath Theatre Royal & UK Tour), The Stranger on the Bridge (Salisbury Playhouse/Tobacco Factory & SW Tour), Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (both Guildford Shakespeare Company), A Girl, Standing, (Theatre503), Me & My Left Ball (Tristan Bates), Measure for Measure, Henry V (both Cambridge Arts Theatre).
TV includes: Big Boys S2 (Channel 4/Roughcut).
Video Game: Company of Heroes 3 (Relic Entertainment).
Workshops: Lasagne (King’s Head), HighTide Rising (HighTide Theatre).
-
Emanuele Aldrovandi
Writer
Emanuele Aldrovandi
Writer
Emanuele Aldrovandi is an Italian playwright. He is Artistic Director of Associazione Teatrale Autori Vivi. In 2013, with Homicide House, he won the Riccione/Tondelli Award. He has also won the Pirandello National Award with Felicità, the Fersen Award with Il Generale, the Hystrio Award and the Mario Fratti Award with Farfalle. He has written original plays and adaptations for leading Italian theatres such as ERT Emilia Romagna National Theater, Elfo Puccini Theatre and Teatro Stabile di Torino National Theater. He has collaborated with established Italian theatre companies like MaMiMò and ATIR, and translated plays including Trainspotting, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Laramie Project into Italian. He was one of the European playwrights selected by Fabulamundi Playwriting Europe, and his plays have been translated, performed and published in English, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Slovenian, Czech, Catalan and Arabic.
-
Marco Young
Translator
Marco Young
Translator
Marco is a British-Italian translator and actor. He has been translating commercially since 2018. He began translating Italian theatre into English in early 2020, and is particularly interested in politically engaged contemporary Italian pieces discussing migration, journeys and the threat of the far-right. He was a mentee on the 2022-23 Foreign Affairs Theatre Translator Mentorship Programme, for which his translation of Suburban Miracles by Gabriele Di Luca was showcased at Camden People’s Theatre in January 2023. His translation of Allarmi by Emanuele Aldrovandi received a rehearsed reading at Omnibus Theatre in July 2023. This translation of Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea, the piece’s first British-English version, was first staged at Seven Dials Playhouse in July 2022. He was a member of Mercury Theatre Colchester’s Producer Development Programme 2022-2023.
-
Daniel Emery
Director
Daniel Emery
Director
Daniel is a European director and translator from South London. He is associate director of both Peckham Levels Theatre and Shipwright, Deptford, staging radical live work in South East London. Daniel is a committee member of translation collective Art Translated. He is co-director, with Marco Young, of Riva Theatre, a production company focussed on bringing plays from abroad to UK stages. He holds an MSc in Political Sociology, with a research focus on necropolitics and the sociological valency of artistic production. Daniel’s practice spans theatre and comedy. As director, his work includes: Pillow Talk (Pleasance, Edinburgh; Second City, Chicago; UCB, New York), Allarmi (Omnibus Theatre), Peter Pan: A Cabaret Pantomime (Shipwright), John Tothill: The Last Living Libertine (Pleasance), and the initial run of Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea (Seven Dials Playhouse).
-
Katharine Farmer
Producer
Katharine Farmer
Producer
Katharine Farmer is the Artistic Director of The Playwright’s Laboratory, a company that provides a network for global theatre professionals who support, develop and programme new work. Through TPL Katharine has developed and produced readings and workshops of 25 new plays in the UK, and works in partnership with over 30 world-class theatres including Hampstead Theatre and Papatango New Writing Prize. Katharine also directs and produces full-scale productions under her theatre company Blue Touch Paper Productions. Most recently, Katharine’s production of ‘Never Not Once’ at Park Theatre received 4 and 5 star reviews from national press such as The Guardian. Previous directing credits include Southwark Playhouse, The Other Palace, Warwick Arts Centre and The Theatre Chipping Norton. Katharine is currently an Artistic Associate at Arcola Theatre.
-
Alys Whitehead
Set and Costume Designer
Alys Whitehead
Set and Costume Designer
Alys Whitehead is a Scenographer based in London and the South East. She likes working with new and abstract writing and is passionate about making work thoughtfully with a particular aim to be as sustainable and waste-free as possible. She is an Associate Designer of Dissident Theatre and NDT Broadgate. As designer, theatre includes: Candy (Park Theatre), Snowflakes (Park Theatre), The Retreat (Finborough), Lysistrata (Lyric Hammersmith), SAD (Omnibus), Maddie (Arcola).
As associate designer, theatre includes: Wordplay (Royal Court), Zoe’s Peculiar Journey Through Time (Theatre Rites/Southbank Centre & International Tour), Sea Creatures (Hampstead).
As assistant designer, theatre includes: Dixon and Daughters (National).
-
Jamie Lu
Sound Designer & Creative Associate
Jamie Lu
Sound Designer & Creative Associate
Jamie is a London-based scenographer, sound designer. Jamie’s theatre credits as sound designer include: Declan (Camden People’s Theatre, EdFringe23), Spin (Hope Theatre, EdFringe23), Going For Gold, Road (Chelsea Theatre), Mother’s Day, Grills (Camden People’s Theatre), Burnout (R&D, Vault Festival and tour), Still Here (Jack Studio Theatre), Hedda Gabler (Reading Rep), Smoke, Tokyo Rose (Southwark Playhouse), Iphigenia (Hope Theatre), Nanny (R&D with Folio Theatre), fester (R&D with Halfpace Theatre), A Gig for Ghosts (Soho Theatre), The Apology, We Started to Sing, Broken Lad (Arcola Theatre), Paradise Lost (Shipwright), The Unicorn, What The Heart Wants, How To Build a Wax Figure (Edinburgh Fringe 2022), Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea (Seven Dials Playhouse), The Blue House (Blue Elephant Theatre), Dirty Hearts (Old Red Lion Theatre).
As Assistant Sound Designer: Henry V (Donmar Warehouse). Sound design for Audio play: The Dream Machine (Fizzy Sherbet).
-
Catja Hamilton
Lighting Designer
Catja Hamilton
Lighting Designer
As Lighting Designer: Public: The Musical, The Importance of Being… Earnest?, Wonderdrug (Pleasance Courtyard), Agrippina (Jackson’s Lane), The Oyster Problem, The Anarchist, Duck, Shake the City (Jermyn Street Theatre), Five Years With The White Man (King’s Head Theatre), Lesbian Space Crime, Hot Gay Time Machine (Soho Theatre), Scratches, SNAIL, Acid’s Reign, how we love, TUNA, Take Care (VAULT Festival), Cassandra (Omnibus Theatre and UK tour), Time and Tide (UK tour), Dolly, Another America, The 4thCountry (Park Theatre); Paradise Lost (The Shipwright), The Boatswain’s Mate (Arcola and UK tour); An Intervention (Riverside Studios), Lizard King (UK tour), Patient Light (The Undercroft), I Have Heard You Calling in the Night (Union Theatre).
As Associate Lighting Designer: Anansi The Spider (Unicorn Theatre), The Marriage of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein (Jermyn Street Theatre), Running with Lions (Lyric Hammersmith), Romeo and Juliet (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Botticelli in the Fire (Hampstead Theatre).
-
Nell Thomas
Stage Manager
Love Park Theatre?
Sign up to hear about events, news and offers.
Mailing List
w
We will use your data to keep you up-to-date with news, events and offers. For more information, please see our Privacy Statement.