Written and Directed by Tiago Rodrigues

Translation by Thomas Resendes

Why would you risk your own life: to save another? Psychological complexes or a secure financial career, maybe it’s just human nature?

Remarkably touching and raw, writer and director Tiago Rodrigues stirs together real accounts from international relief and aid workers to form an enthralling and brilliantly open and honest piece of multilingual documentary theatre: As Far As Impossible which runs at the Royal Lyceum Theatre as a part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Gradually, audiences transition from the land of the “possible”. It’s your land, our land, and one where the aid workers of the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders are questioned and interviewed following their tours of attempting to offer humanitarian aid in war zones. There is no happy ending here, at least not for generic audiences. The happiest outcomes of these doctors still often end with death, but a painless or quick one, the least harmful of the outcomes.

To carry these tales takes tremendous levels of skill and respect: Beatriz Brás, Baptiste Coustenoble, Adrien Barazzone, and Natacha Koutchoumov exemplify it in droves. They capture the wit, sophistication, and humanity of the people whose stories have been collected as they converse with the audience in a verbatim fashion, accounting for the exploits of workers in field hospitals, rural outposts, or the middle of mountain and jungle regions.

The titular “impossible” is something the rest of us couldn’t even fathom; areas in which these people must venture, often alone. Laurent Junod, Wendy Tokuoka, and Laura Fleury’s scenic design warp the landscape as the endless pulleys and hoists draw a Red-Cross tent into the rafters above, gradually encompassing the performers below as they slip more and more into the lives of the aid workers.

Voice is a paramount element for the show – those with one and those without. Persistently the workers are asked ‘Why?’. For some it’s a job, other’s there’s a rush, but it boils down to the personal cost and heavy sacrifices. Rodrigues isn’t pushing for a logical explanation, beautifully drawing the line between our place in the “possible” where these seem like genuine questions, and the “impossible”, a world where no explanation is needed. As Far as Impossible does not offer a voice to the suffering bodies who receive treatment, nor the political suits which make the commands and detrimental factors of war.

Gabriel Ferrandini’s bass percussion has been constructed to deliberately put the audience at unease, modified to reverberate the Lyceum floors, shaking the fabric of the building. It’s almost unbearable as the climax erupts, but it’s nothing in comparison to the tales heard this evening.

A well-considered and solemn piece of documentary storytelling, by the end of the evening, the land of the “possible” is a blur in the distance, and it’s unsure if we will ever manage to live within it the same way again. It feels almost intrusive to be a part of this in ways: these usually unheard stories gathered and given a thundering voice by Rodrigues.