BREXIT – In England even God speaks English

When I wrote my last post I was killing time in the north of France. Today I’m in the opposite side of the country i.e. in Cannes waiting to enter inside a conference room at the Cannes Film Festival.

One wonders what the effects of Brexit will be on cinema, apart from theatre. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to pitch our play to be made into a movie.

In any case today’s subject is immigration… one of the 5 basic ingredients needed to cook the perfect populist’s recipe (more to that in another post)

In retrospective, there is no doubt that immigration played a big part in the outcome of the Brexit referendum.

It is doubtful that the scene of scores of migrants making the way on foot to Germany across the Austrian border, in what resembled a biblical exodus, played in favour of the ‘remainers’

Yes, Angela Merkel might have loved the idea of open borders and welcoming hugs…for just about 48 hours. After which she decided for a wiser course of action.

However, that didn’t stop many people in Europe from raising an eyebrow to the simple question of: ‘will these people be allowed to roam freely in the EU once they get a German residency permit?

So don’t blame it on the French, the Austrians or the Hungarians, who rapidly rediscovered their wall building skills. When it comes to this major cock-up the culprit is clearly based in Berlin.

And if madness is like gravity (to quote a famous line from the Dark Knight) this final little push delivered by Angela might have been what really tilted the balance.

Immigration was, therefore, at top of the list of topics we wanted to cover in the dialogue between the two protagonists of our play.

Add to this the historical British obsession of keeping Catholics at bay, at least politically, and you had the ingredients for some great one liners.

For what was the scism of Henry the VIII with the Catholic Church of Rome if not the very first Brexit movie? (and let me assure you that here in Cannes film producers just love sequels)

That time it took over 30 years. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that this time the whole process may stretch a little bit beyond Halloween.

Unless some kind of divine miracle may deviate the course of history.

Because you never know…in England even God speaks English.

Brexit is playing on 31 May to 2 June @ Rialto Theatre, Brighton
(link to the show on the Brighton Fringe website)