Performance and Migration website is designed to support any researcher, student or specialist in completing literature reviews, essays, publications or more in the field of Theatre and Migration by providing an easily accessible archive of research which has been compiled and sorted into several comprehensive collections

Archives: Productions

304 entries

Title: Natun Ihudi / Natun Yahudi (The New Jew)

Geography: Asia > Southern Asia > India

Year: 1951

Produced by: Associated with Kranti Shilpi Sangha and the Bengali refugee theatre movement

Creative Team: Written by Salil Sen; staged with the involvement of Bhanu Banerjee; early performers associated with the production included Sabitri Chatterjee

Synopsis: Natun Ihudi centres on Hindu refugees from East Bengal whose movement into West Bengal after Partition does not produce the security they expected. Having crossed the new international border, displaced families confront poverty and downward social mobility in Calcutta. The title deliberately invokes Jewish histories of displacement to frame Bengali refugees as people made strangers through political division. The production is especially significant because its migration politics extends beyond representation. Bhanu Banerjee staged the work as part of fundraising efforts for East Bengal refugees. Theatre became a means through which people already living with Partition displacement could be represented to audiences while money was raised for newly arrived refugee communities.

Source: Cambridge University Press, research on Natun Ihudi and Bengali refugee displacement: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/itinerario/article/partition-of-india-bengali-new-jews-and-refugee-democrac y-transnational-horizons-of-indian-refugee-political-discourse/1B7D428F55EA13245AD730EB4C68BD23 Cinemaazi, production history and Bhanu Banerjee: https://www.cinemaazi.com/people/bhanu-banerjee Indian Cine.ma, background on Natun Yahudi: https://indiancine.ma/GXT
Title: Neighbourhood Watch

Geography: Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > Australia

Year: 2011

Produced by: Belvoir

Creative Team: Written by Lally Katz; directed by Simon Stone

Synopsis: Neighbourhood Watch develops an unlikely friendship between Catherine, a young Australian woman, and Ana, an older Hungarian neighbour whose memories move between wartime Europe and suburban Canberra. Ana’s stories are expansive and sometimes unreliable, but memory becomes a way through which exile and later domestic life are connected. The neighbourhood appears safe, yet Ana interprets it through fears formed by earlier persecution. Catherine gradually enters these narratives while facing uncertainty in her own life. Migration is staged through the long afterlife of forced movement. The production is relevant to inherited memory because Ana’s past begins to reorganise the younger woman’s understanding of place.

Source: Belvoir, production archive: https://belvoir.com.au/productions/neighbourhood-watch/ Belvoir, learning resources: https://belvoir.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Neighbourhood-Watch_Learning-Resources-2020.pdf New Zealand
Title: New

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2023

Produced by: Necessary Angel Theatre Company in association with Canadian Stage and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

Creative Team: Directed by Alan Dilworth | Set Designer: Lorenzo Savoini | Costume Designer: Michelle Bohn | Lighting Designer: Hugh Conacher | Sound Designer: John Gzowski

Synopsis: The play takes place in the 1970s in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where a bride shows up to the university town and everything in the tight nit community is shaken up. Nuhza, a young Bengali Muslin woman just married Qasim, over the phone at the insistence of her mother and she is excited to start her new life in an unfamiliar community. Qasim, Nuhza’s brand new husband, is still in love with a Canadian nurse, by the name Abby, which leads to him not being able to connect emotionally and physically with his new wife, Nuhza. Though Nuhza’s relationship is not what it seems, she is left to discover a new life of hopes and experiences in this university town.

Source: https://www.canadianstage.com/show/new | https://ourtheatrevoice.com/new-by-pamela-mala-sinha/ | https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/N/New
Title: NEW WORLD

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Year: 1997

Produced by:

Creative Team: Sung Rno | Playwright:Sung Rno Director: Marcy Arlin

Synopsis: Multicultural fables about America. Columbus and Crew discover civilization. Minority gangsters debate their roles in world history. An elderly Korean immigrant ponders his American family and Ali McGraw. Columbus learns origami.

Source: https://www.immigrantstheat.org/productions/
Title: Nine Dragons

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2018

Produced by:

Creative Team: Playwright and Director: Jovanni Sy.

Synopsis: Synopsis：Nine Dragons is a gripping noir-inspired thriller by Jovanni Sy set in 1920s colonial Hong Kong. The play follows Tommy Lam, a brilliant Chinese detective facing racism from British superiors as he investigates a series of brutal murders. As Lam’s pursuit leads him to wealthy suspect Victor Fung, the story explores race, identity, and colonial power. Blending social critique with suspense, Nine Dragons examines systemic injustice while delivering a compelling mystery that resonates with contemporary issues in multicultural Canada.

Source:
Title: Niu Sila

Geography: Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > New Zealand

Year: 2003

Produced by: Downstage Theatre

Creative Team: Written by Dave Armstrong and Oscar Kightley; directed by Conrad Newport; originally performed by David Fane and Damon Andrews

Synopsis: Niu Sila follows the friendship between Ioane, a Samoan New Zealander, and Peter, a Pākehā boy, from childhood into adulthood. Two actors perform a large range of relatives and neighbours, making the social world around the friendship visible through rapid character changes. The title uses a Samoan pronunciation of New Zealand, this signals that the nation is experienced differently across different languages and communities. The consequences and racial assumptions Ionane’s family faces after arrival shape Ionane’s education. The friendship creates intimacy across cultural differences, but it does not remove the unequal ways the two men are treated. Niu Sila is relevant to post migration identity because Ioane’s belonging is repeatedly questioned by others. The production displays ordinary Pacific New Zealand life whilst also revealing the social mechanisms that continually mark migrants as other.

Source: Te Ara, production and cultural-history feature: https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/43428/niu-sila Armstrong Creative, project archive: https://www.armstrongcreative.co.nz/projects/niusila
Title: NO Foreigners

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2018

Produced by: Produced by fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company, Hong Kong Exile and the Theatre Centre

Creative Team: David Yee | Playwright: David Yee

Synopsis: Seven original stories begin in a mall and quickly diverge—catapulting across cities, between Cantonese and English, in and out of the afterlife, and through past, present and future. Through live performance and a micro-to-macro camera apparatus, No Foreigners weaves together text, miniatures and media design as it attempts to unpack what is at the heart of “Chineseness” and what the future can hold for all of us visitors and settlers.

Source: https://theatrecentre.org/event/no-foreigners-2018/
Title: No Llegamos Aquí Solos

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Year: 2024

Produced by: Teatro Visión (San Jose, CA U.S.)

Creative Team: By Yosimar Reyes | created in collaboration with community members in East San José

Synopsis: No Llegamos Aquí Solos takes place in an apartment building in San Jose, California. The neighbors the play follows are all undocumented and are each dealing with their own individual problems. Their stories each have a moment of showcasing all they do for the community, working, or selling, or contributing. No Llegamos Aquí Solos can be translated to “we did not come here alone,” and each character goes through moments of human interaction and community. The events culminate into a raid by immigration agents after learning the stories of the characters. By Yosimar Reyes, Santa Clara County Poet Laureate A new play in progress, created in collaboration with community members in East San José

Source: https://www.teatrovision.org/essj | https://www.kqed.org/arts/13986720/yosimar-reyes-play-no-llegamos-aqui-solos-ice-raids-east-san-jose
Title: No Man’s Land

Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom

Year: 2025

Produced by: Bristol Sanctuary Theatre | Bristol Beacon | Bristol Refugee Festival

Creative Team: Writer/Concept: Fahrudin Salihbegovic | Producer: Lu Bristow | Assistant Director: Dillan Pusey | Facilitator: Hannah Kew

Synopsis: No Man’s Land is a multimedia theatre piece that explores war, homelessness, survival, and exile through the story of Noman, a failed asylum seeker living in London. Developed with refugee and migrant students, refugee musicians and visual artists, and professional artists, the production mixes theatre and projection to interweave the lives of refugees, the homeless, and those who try to help them.

Source: https://bristolbeacon.org/whats-on/nomans-land/ | https://www.bristolsanctuarytheatre.org/portfolio-collections/my-portfolio/nomans-land-at-bristol-beacon
Title: Nous, l’Europe, Banquet des peuples

Geography: Europe > Western Europe > France

Year: 2019

Produced by: ACTOpus–Compagnie Roland Auzet; delegated production for the premiere by L’Archipel, scène nationale de Perpignan

Creative Team: Text by Laurent Gaudé; conceived, composed and directed by Roland Auzet; choreography by Joëlle Bouvier; video by Pierre Laniel.

Synopsis: Nous, l’Europe, Banquet des peuples attempts to construct a resolute European history through actors and a large local chorus. The production moves from the industrial revolutions into the violence of the twentieth century before confronting contemporary nationalism. Colonialism and the movement of workers are presented as integral to the formulation of Europe as the production addresses the exploitation and heritage of European Nations. The production also considers stateless people and those attempting to enter a continent that celebrates freedom while also strengthening its external boundaries. Performers of several nationalities prevent the concept of Europe being voiced by one dominant culture. This emphasises community and treats migration as a force that was intrinsic to Europe’s creation instead of a recent crisis.

Source: Roland Auzet, official production page and production credits: https://rolandauzet.com/portfolio/nous-leurope-2/ Théâtre Prospero, production background and touring information: https://theatreprospero.com/programmation/pieces/nous-l-europe-banquet-des-peuples