Re:Creating Europe review – voices from history echo through Brexit

The Lowry, Salford
From Henry V's speech to Jona Lewie's Stop the Cavalry, this illuminating production explores the 'flawed family' of Europe

Way back at the start of the Brexit wars, Rufus Norris and Carol Ann Duffy put together a play based on interviews with people - mainly leavers - about their thoughts on the referendum. Topical though it was, My Country: A Work in Progress felt like a vox pop, all shallow thoughts and contradictions, offering lots of noise and little insight. It's a shame Ivo van Hove's Re:Creating Europe wasn't around at the same time because, although it has a similar multi-voice format, its analysis goes deeper.

In a one-off for the Manchester international festival, it is performed script-in-hand by actors from Internationaal Theater Amsterdam with Juliet Stevenson, Christopher Eccleston, Adjoa Andoh, Lemn Sissay and Michael Morpurgo. Their source material ranges from John Donne ("No man is an island") to Barack Obama ("We are heirs to a struggle for freedom"), supplemented by video footage that embraces everything from a Winston Churchill speech to Jona Lewie's Stop the Cavalry.