Geography: Asia > Eastern Asia > Taiwan
Year: 2017
Produced by: Centre for Applied Theatre, Taiwan, working with migrant-worker organisations
Creative Team: Workshop and creative process led by Lai Shu-ya; developed collectively with almost thirty Filipino migrant workers
Synopsis: Cry for the Poor was developed over several months with Filipino migrant workers living in Taiwan. Its title comes from a piece by participant Joseph Christian P. Aranas recognised through Taiwan’s Migrant Workers Literature Award. The performers use their own experiences as material, investigating their own employment conditions and the emotional effects of prolonged separation from family. The production emerged from People’s Theatre workshops as participants shaped which experiences became public and how those experiences were represented. The work also creates a collective migrant voice without suggesting that every worker’s circumstances are identical. The audience is reminded that Taiwan depends upon employment relationships that can restrict personal freedom which separate workers from support networks at home.
Source: Centre for Applied Theatre, Taiwan, official migrant-theatre project page: https://www.catt.org.tw/%E5%AF%A6%E8%B8%90%E5%B7%A5%E4%BD%9C/voices-of-the-drifters_ catt/%E7%A7%BB%E5%B7%A5%E5%8A%87%E5%A0%B4 Performing Arts Reviews, production discussion: https://pareviews.ncafroc.org.tw/comments/05d488c1-f1c4-4a7f-8a57-7123e0547290