You might expect a play about the pain and strain of emigrating to Britain to explore problems of language, culture shock and the kind of treatment immigrants encounter once they arrive. But the latest touring production from Eastern Angles is not concerned with such mundane matters. They may be real concerns to people hoping to settle here but Ivan Cutting’s 80-minute play, described as “a promenade production in two rooms and a corridor”, is searching for a more profound and longer-lasting reality.

A sizeable population of Portuguese and Polish immigrants now live in the area surrounding Ipswich, where Eastern Angles is based, and the play tells the story of José and Caterina, flying from Lisbon, and then that of Malina, seemingly travelling on the same aircraft, but which she boarded at Stettin. Gradually we sense that the flight path, the plane itself and the baggage retrieval hall exist somewhere outside the matter-of-fact world, although a strong hint is given early on when we notice that the large trunk from which Malina emerges is labelled with Gdansk’s pre-1945 name, Danzig.

As in all promenade productions, the audience is shepherded from room to room and risks being abruptly caught up in the action. I found myself being clutched for support when Chara Jackson’s Caterina went into labour, although no baby arrived, and the play continued as though the scene had not happened, one of the signs that the script was not yet finished.

When we join Caterina and José (Pedro Reichert) in the queue for passport control, we find them being harangued by their aircraft’s unpleasantly aggressive pilot (Ade Sapara). His anger is never explained, even by the revelation that he too was once an immigrant. Beata Majka’s air hostess then leads us to a room where the couple’s luggage is searched and discovered to contain school photos and teddy bears, memories from the past.

The pilot shouts at them again, saying that in order to belong in their new country they must abandon their past. This causes much dismay, and is later contradicted when Noeleen Comiskey’s fragile Malina is discovered to have no baggage, hence no links with her previous life, and must have it restored.

How to deal with memories of the homeland is the gist of the play, and it draws on contributions from people who have made such journeys themselves. But while the idea is intriguing, and episodes such as Malina’s discovery of a family photo are genuinely poignant, the structure is still too ramshackle to achieve its aim.

Touring until July 25. Details: www.easternangles.co.uk

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