Runaway follows the journey of a quirky, naïve, Eastern European who moves away from home in order to find home. Diana picks London because she could get a cheap flight there (and as an afterthought, because it is also the land of opportunities) where she spends weeks without seeing a British person who appear to be in neither restaurants, corner shops nor cafés. She travels from Cockfosters (which really is that far) to Shoreditch (where eating disorders are necessary for integration) to Canary Wharf (where everyone works in an office but is unable to elaborate further on the specifics of their job) in search of a career, love and herself.
Diana is endearing in her eccentricities. Her best friend is the self-checkout machine at Tesco because it is kind enough to always give her the option of cash or card. Her accent coach is from…Birmingham. And her flatmate smells of pickles and ham.
Writer and actress Zuzana Spacirova is supremely talented and has the audience captivated with her loneliness, insecurities, and idiosyncrasies. The play highlights the many oddities of London – how waiting seven minutes for a tube is completely unacceptable, how no one speaks “like they do in Downton Abbey” and that, when in doubt, go to Pret. Runaway raises poignant questions around the definition of “self” and how if you fake anything long enough, it becomes real – even your identity.
Runaway had me questioning my own definition of the word “home”. For me, home isn’t a place, it is that warm and fuzzy feeling of curling your fingers around a cup of tea on a cold and rainy day. Bonus points if there is a chocolate hobnob on the side. It is the comfort of watching a tv show for the 100th time knowing exactly how it ends but laughing at every joke anyway. Bonus points if it is Friends. It is that contentment of knowing that everyone you love is safe. Bonus points if they are under the same roof as you. For Diana, it is the realisation that she cannot keep running from herself.
Runaway is the extremely relatable story of an immigrant constantly torn between the need to recreate themselves in a foreign land but also simply wanting to retreat to the safety of their comfort zone. There is a piece of Diana in all of us – the piece that feels like a “bottle of mayonnaise”, unsure of whether it belongs in the fridge or not.
Runaway previews at Drayton Arms Theatre until 1st July. It performs at Camden Fringe 31st July to 1st August and Edinburgh Fringe 4th – 26th August.
