Maid in London
Can’t See For Looking, at the Old Fire Station, Oxford from September 28-30. Review by Jon Lewis
Directed by David Trevaskis with movement from Emma Webb, the inference from the title is that society should not ignore abuses that take place in plain view and where evidence of criminal activity is not theoretical.
Margarita San Luis is convincing as Rosa, who, at 15, was convinced by her father to become a nanny for a wealthy Arab family in Abu Dhabi so that her mother’s medical fees could be paid.
Rosa’s family got her the job because the Abbas family were her uncle’s business partners, and initially, although hard work, Rosa copes with looking after the Abbas children in the Middle East.
Her problems happen once the Abbases relocate to London. Rosa’s story is told in flashback as evidence to a world-weary Home Office official, John (Fanos Xenofos) who is assessing whether Rosa’s asylum claim has an validity since the Philippines are judged a safe country for asylum purposes.
The playwright’s use John’s character to explain about the asylum system and its overburdened employees.
Rosa’s passport is confiscated and responsibility for Rosa falls to the tough, uncompromising Nura (Rania Kurdi) whose strict adherence to Muslim values leads her to stereotype Rosa as having loose morals and beliefs.
In addition to her nannying duties, Rosa is forced to be a cleaner and house servant with no days off, no pocket money as her income is sent directly to her father in the Philippines, and basic living quarters to call home. One of Nura’s two sons begins to use Rosa for sex. She is regularly beaten.
In desperation, Rosa asks an upper class English friend of the Abbases, Henrietta (Laura Fitzpatrick), who looks away, for help. It falls to fellow Philippina Angel (Ericka Posadas), a charity worker who was also abused, to rescue Rosa from servitude.
There are tens of thousands in similar conditions to Rosa.