An Italian theatre company, Kepler-452, embarks on a ship conducting search and rescue missions in the Central Mediterranean, the Sea-Watch 5. They are not entirely sure what they are looking for; they only know that for a long time, they have been hearing about what happens just a few kilometers off the Italian coast. Perhaps the time has come to go and see for themselves what is happening along the deadliest migration route in the world. During this mission, they rescue 156 people, who are later disembarked at the “place of safety” of La Spezia, a safe port in Italy, 4 days of navigation away from the rescue location. From this journey emerges a series of thoughts, questions, anxieties, and encounters with rescuers from various NGOs operating in the Mediterranean—besides Sea-Watch, also operators from Life Support, the search and rescue ship of Emergency. Some of these rescuers will recount on stage what they have witnessed over the past few years just a few kilometers from our shores. A Place of Safety is the story of the meeting between a theatre company and a group of people who have chosen to dedicate part of their lives to civil sea rescue. But it is also, and above all, a spark of attention on the collective blind spot of our continent: what happens in the Central Mediterranean. Ultimately, it is an intimate reflection on what Europe aspires to be, what it is not, and what it could become. What makes this show a radical challenge is that the Mediterranean is, in this moment, the greatest repressed issue of Europe and of Italy in particular. It is what we willingly remove from our sight before than from our conscience. It is so not only because it is a huge mass grave of innocents, but also because it reminds us that the allegedly safe piece of land in which we live is a kind of strange oasis in an increasingly literal world on fire, knocking on our doors and reminding us that our privilege is fragile and ready to shatter in the face of some in the face of the most recent upheavals. The rejected or drowned migrants concern the very idea that Europe has of itself, undermining from the foundations the image of civilisation that the continent wants to give to others and give to itself. In the same way, the ground staff and the crews on board the rescue ships are a set of European identities that, perhaps, tell us of another Italy, another Germany, France, Spain, another possible Europe