Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom
Year: 2019
Produced by: Phosphoros Theatre; Edinburgh Festival Fringe and UK tour
Creative Team: Created by Phosphoros Theatre; Written by Dawn Harrison with performers Tewodros Aregawe, Goitom Fesshaye, Emirjon Hoxhaj and Syed Haleem Najibi
Synopsis: Pizza Shop Heroes is an autobiographical performance by Phosphoros Theatre, a company that places refugee and asylum-seeking performers at the centre of its work. Set in a pizza shop, the production follows four young men who came to the UK from Eritrea, Albania and Afghanistan. Through direct address, group performance and humour, the production confronts and questions the impact of arrival, family separation and asylum on the making of male cultural identity. As a collective and lyrical collage of friendship and belonging, Pizza Shop Heroes resists the victim narrative. The work challenges common representations of refugees as helpless or threatening and empowers performers to claim narrative control over their own histories.
Source: Phosphoros Theatre, Production Listing for Pizza Shop Heroes: https://www.phosphorostheatre.com/productions-2 Media Diversified, Article on Pizza Shop Heroes, by Sabo Kpade: https://mediadiversified.org/2019/04/18/pizza-shop-heroes-sees-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-tell-their-o wn-stories/ Broadway Baby, Review for Pizza Shop Heroes, by Freddie Green: https://broadwaybaby.com/shows/pizza-shop-heroes/745464