Welcome To The Jungle

A new play centered on the Calais refugee camp sparks a visceral response.

- Hamish Bowles

JOE ROBERTSON AND JOE MURPHY met eight years ago while studying English at Oxford and were soon writing their first play together—a surreal comedy set in a decrepit English country house. “And then we just never stopped, really,” says Robertson.

Three years ago, “the two Joes,” as they are known, were electrified by the images from the world’s refugee crises, which have seen 21.3 million displaced people on the move around the globe. “The basic questions that we were asking— who are these people, where are they coming from, why are they traveling, where do they want to get to?—weren’t being answered,” says Robertson, “and we made the—probably naive—decision to try and find out.”