The future is a promise that cannot be foreseen

In conversation with Amit Lahav about empathy, migration stories and his play ‘Kin’

Our lives begin in small ways; it’s like drops of rain that become little streams and then, finally, great rivers that flow into the ocean. I arrived in the UK at the end of 2022 through many countries, eight years after I had left my own country, Burundi.

If someone had told me that I was going to end up in the United Kingdom, I’d have thought they were dreaming – but now I’ve learned that tomorrow is a promise that cannot be foreseen.

I did not have any family or friends when I first arrived in the UK, and I could not have predicted who I would be surrounded by. I couldn’t have known that not only would I meet interesting and welcoming people, but people that would, in turn, help me reflect on my own experience.

One of these was Amit Lahav, the Artistic Director and founder of the theatre company Gecko. In February, I went to the National Theatre and watched Kin, Gecko’s latest production which uses physical theatre to portray different migration stories inspired by members of the international cast.

One of the stories that inspired the play was the journey of Amit’s grandmother, who in 1932 left Yemen to build a better life in Palestine. I got the opportunity to speak with Amit, and I was able to put my hunger for questioning into practice.

The future is a promise that cannot be foreseen

By A. Kwizera