SYNOPSIS
ACT ONE: A street scene in Milan in the rain. The poet explains he is here to meet his lover, to find Europa, “the cloudburst girl in a season of wet weather.” He reflects on London rain and the storms that have blown through his life. Describing his descent into the underworld we are transported back to the tunnels below King’s Cross where the ghost of ‘Body 115’ appears, giving account of his final moments in the fire that engulfed the station.
ACT TWO: London. The poet follows ‘Body 115’ through the sewers and underground rivers of the city to the Thames and out across Kent to the cliffs at Dover. They cross the Chanel and enter the limbo realm – a refugee camp in Calais. Asleep on his feet the poet wanders through France and becomes separated from his guide.
ACT THREE: Lost in a vision the poet sees his lover in Milan but is woken from the dream as Paris “emerges in a grey haze” at the break of day. Dejected in a hotel room the poet considers his broken relationship. He decides to take a train from Paris to Milan to find her. On a station platform he recalls ‘Body 115’ at King’s Cross and of the journeys we make and take toward reconciliation.
BODY 115 