Inspired by Juliane Koepcke’s harrowing experience as the sole survivor of the 1971 LANSA Flight 508 plane crash, TheatreGoose present ‘Her Green Hell’ for Fringe 2023. A blend of physical theatre, and monologue, writer & director Emma Howlett picks up Juliane’s story just as she makes the fateful choice that will find both her, and her mother on the doomed flight.
Sophie Kean is first rate as Juliane, fully invested in this dramatisation which blends first-person monologue, and physical theatre. The story is made for theatre, dropping Julianne through a tropical storm, and into the depths of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Somehow, she survives, injured but mobile, and equipped with tears of survival training from her field Zoologist parents. Still, she has no map, no watch, no means of contacting the outside world, and knows just how lethally dangerous the jungle is. The odds are not good; what will she do?
Howlett makes ‘Her Green Hell’ a story of momentum, Juliane constantly having to make choices which propel her forwards, or accept her termination. Adrenaline, intelligence, and even her initial concussion are assets, empowering her to act where others would be at a loss. Kean, for her part narrates the action clearly, embodying the inner conflict between the hero’s arch-competence and the paralysing horror which lurks in the night.
Howlett choreographs a potently physical performance, taking full advantage of a simple, but clever set. A trio of excised plane seats within a low, green wall provide a versatile topography to traverse, whilst a background screen carried muted, but effective backdrops. Elements of puppetry are used to emphasise Julliane’s smallness before storm and wilderness, whilst the subdued lighting scheme creates a claustrophobic atmosphere.
The drama progressing, Howlett envisions an interior journey to mirror Julianne’s external travails. This introduces a slightly fevered meditation on nature, and humanity’s place within it. It adds a philosophical dimension to this grim adventure, though perhaps this dispassion mutes the emotional fall-out, and horrendous revelations which attend the finale.
Nonetheless, ‘Her Green Hell’ is an immersive hour of sophisticated, well conceived, and ambitious theatre. It’s a tale, and experience the audience will contemplate long after they’ve left the stalls.
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