Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom
Year:
Produced by: PSYCHEdelight; performed at The Cockpit and toured internationally.
Creative Team: Directed by Sophie NL Besse; devised by PSYCHEdelight with refugee and European performers
Synopsis: Borderline is a devised production created by PSYCHEdelight with refugee and European performers from countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine and Sudan. Set around the Calais Jungle, the production is highly comedic. Utilising clowning, satire, ensemble work and physical theatre it exposes the absurdity and regulation of border bureaucracy and European border control. Rather than presenting refugees only through suffering, the piece challenges the refugee ‘victim narrative’ and uses comedy to subvert and resist purely dehumanising images of crisis. The camp appears as a temporary home shaped by humour, joint circumstances and political abandonment. This shows how joy, friendship and performance are important within precarious conditions. The proaction challenges the performers to help them shape their own representation rather than being spoken for by outsiders.
Source: PSYCHEdelight, Production listing for Borderline: https://www.psychedelight.org/borderline Refugee History, Blog Post for Borderline: https://refugeehistory.org/blog/2017/12/13/being-human-2017-borderline-review-and-qa-transcript The Guardian, Review of Borderline: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/21/borderline-the-play-finding-the-funny-side-of-the-calais -migrant-camp PSYCHEdelight Film Description for Borderline: https://www.psychedelight.org/borderlinefilm Refugee Week, Interview with Sophie Besse on Borderline: https://refugeeweek.org/its-heartbreaking-to-feel-like-you-only-inspire-pity-an-interview-with-sophie-bes se-director-of-borderline-comedy-about-calais/