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: Acquiesce

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2016

Produced by: fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company

Creative Team: David Yee | Playwright: David Yee Director: Nina Lee Aquino

Synopsis: Synopsis：In Acquiesce, Sin Hwang, a Canadian writer haunted by his past and the burden of his first novel’s success, travels to Hong Kong after his estranged father’s death. Tasked with delivering a eulogy he’s reluctant to give, Sin must navigate language barriers, family tensions, and Buddhist funeral rituals he barely understands. Along the way, he confronts surreal figures like a talking Paddington Bear and the ghost of his father. As secrets unravel and hallucinations blur with reality, Sin’s emotional baggage surfaces. Ultimately, the play explores identity, grief, and inherited trauma, ending with Sin’s reluctant acceptance of being his father’s son.
Hong Kong Exile

Source: https://ttdb.ca/shows/acquiesce/
Title: African Exodus

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Year: 2025

Produced by: Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York

Creative Team: Director: Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Synopsis: African Exodus is an experimental journey through the African migratory experience. African Exodus features over 80 pairs of shoes which are transformed into instruments, tools, and markers of the journeys taken by each individual. Each shoe tells a story, navigating the movement of people and their linguistic footprints within the African continent. Blending African and Western choral traditions, African Exodus explores the ideas and themes of a shared human journey, where music, culture, and history converge.

Source: https://pacnyc.org/whats-on/african-exodus/
Title: Ali in Wonder(eng) land

Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom

Year: 2022

Produced by: LegalAliens

Creative Team: Lara Parmiani Assistant Directors: Hester Welch and Sara Corso | Director &Dramaturgy: Lara Parmiani Assistant Directors: Hester Welch and Sara Corso

Synopsis: Ali in Wonder(Eng)land, co-created with migrants and refugees at the Engine Room, reimagines Lewis Carroll’s tale to explore migration through an absurdist lens. Blending personal stories, UK-test improvisations, and a playful quiz show, performers share the lead role. Animated projections and live music create a whimsical yet ironic commentary on borders, identity and belonging.

Source: https://legalalienstheatre.com/ali-in-wonderengland/
Title: Almeida (The Glorious)

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2017

Produced by: The Amy Project
Presented by The SummerWorks Performance Festival

Creative Team: Directors: Julia Hune-Brown and Nikki Shaffeeullah

Synopsis: Almeida (The Glorious) by The AMY Project is a powerful, ensemble-driven performance blending monologue, poetry, and movement. Created by young artists, it explores ancestry, identity, and resilience. With themes like poverty, bullying, and Indigenous erasure, it confronts and uplifts. The diverse cast embodies Canada’s future, delivering raw, honest storytelling through words, visuals, and voice. Emotional and unflinching, Almeida is a vibrant act of youth empowerment and cultural reflection.

Source: https://www.mooneyontheatre.com/2017/08/04/almeida-the-glorious-the-amy-project-2017-summerworks-review/ (Review)
Title: Amma La

Geography: Asia > Southern Asia > India

Year: 2019

Produced by: Developed through participatory theatre workshops with young Tibetans in India as part of migration researcher Lidis Garbovan’s research

Creative Team: Created and facilitated by Lidis Garbovan with approximately seventy Tibetan participants; workshops included participants connected with the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts and Library of Tibetan Works and Archives

Synopsis: Amma La directly emerged from ethnographic research into the question of Indian citizenship for Tibetan refugees living in India. The project brought together research findings for participatory theatre workshops with young Tibetans from settlements across India. Performance allowed participants to explore citizenship, displacement and the prolonged uncertainty of living in a country that may be experienced as home without straightforward political belonging. The project displays the methodology of migration and refugee exile. The participants’ experience became material that participants could challenge and reinterpret themselves. The production connects theatre-making practices to research into migration.

Source: Journal of Participatory Research Methods, full article on the project: https://jprm.scholasticahq.com/article/122508-amma-la-reflective-account-of-a-participatory-mixed-theatre-method-in- migration-research-in-india Universitas Gadjah Mada repository, research record: https://digilib.fisipol.ugm.ac.id/repo/handle/15717717/26907 ResearchGate, project/article record: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384792089_Amma_La_Reflective_Account_of_a_Participatory_Mixed_Thea tre_Method_in_Migration_Research_in_India Pakistan
Title: Amores Pós-Coloniais

Geography: Europe > Southern Europe > Portugal

Year: 2019

Produced by: Hotel Europa; co-produced by Teatro Nacional D. Maria II

Creative Team: Created by André Amálio; co-created with Tereza Havlíčková; performed by André Amálio, Júlio Mesquita, Laurinda Chiungue, Pedro Salvador, Romi Anauel and Tereza Havlíčková

Synopsis: Amores Pós-Coloniais uses testimony to examine intimate relationships formed during Portuguese colonial rule and the wars of decolonisation. Portuguese and African speakers describe marriages or relationships that crossed racial boundaries while remaining subject to unequal legal and social structures. Some families later moved to Portugal, where children inherited identities shaped by attachment and discrimination. The production emphasises the alterations of love in the face of colonial power. Affection develops within systems determining where couples may live and how their children are classified. By placing several accounts together, Hotel Europa shows how decolonisation entered domestic life through separation and contested belonging. Migration to Portugal continues the colonial relationship.

Source: Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, production and touring page: https://www.tndm.pt/pt/digressoes/amores-pos-coloniais/ Gragoatá, study of the production and its documentary method: https://periodicos.uff.br/gragoata/article/view/42957 ‘Decolonising through Love’, review by Frederico Bernardio: https://www.agendalx.pt/2019/02/18/decolonizing-through-love/?lang=en
Title: An Enemy of The People

Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > Norway

Year: 2012

Produced by: Teater Ibsen

Creative Team: Director: Nora Amin | Dramaturgy: Nora Amin

Synopsis: This adaptation of “An Enemy of The People” by Henrik Ibsen, translated into Arabic and staged in Skien, Norway. This adaptation follows an Egyptian political dissident, much like the original, confronts the public opinion/debate, with the current lens of the modern Arab world’s argument and corruption with the representation of denial within the conflict. This work explores the immense pressure and stress that a conflict like the one faced by many Arabs and MENA folks.

Source: https://ibsenscope.com/news/conference/enemy-of-the-people/ | https://playstosee.com/interviews/nora-amin-in-conversation-with-rivka-jacobson/ | https://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/en/v/interweaving-performance-cultures/fellows/fellows_2017_2018/nora_amin/index.html
Title: An IMM-Permanent Resident

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2022

Produced by: Nautanki Bazaar | Why Not Theatre – RISER Project | The Theatre Centre

Creative Team: Writers/Performers: Neha Poduval & Himanshu Sitlani | Director: Miquelon Rodriguez

Synopsis: If love travels the seven seas, who’s an Immigration Officer to disagree? A comedy infused with Bollywood elements, An IMM-Permanent Resident follows playwrights and real-life couple Neha Poduval and Himanshu Sitlani as they navigate the bureaucracy of the Canadian immigration process. Moving between Mumbai and Toronto, the play explores the couple’s attempts to obtain permanent residency, the delays and rejections that put their hopes on hold, and the emotional cost of proving one’s right to belong.

Source: https://tapa.ca/nominations-announced-for-42nd-annual-dora-mavor-moore-awards/ | https://www.factorytheatre.ca/shows/an-imm-permanent-resident/ | https://www.stage-door.com/3/news/2022-News/Entries/2022/3/toronto-an-imm-permanent-resident-by-nautanki-bazaar-premieres-at-the-theatre-centre-on-april-1-1.html
Title: An Invisible Piece of this World

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Year: 2016

Produced by: IATI

Creative Team: Juan Diego Botto | Playwright:Juan Diego Botto Director: Ignacio García-Bustelo

Synopsis: Award-winning Spanish actor and playwright Juan Diego Botto’s An Invisible Piece of this World confronts the urgent issue of (im)migration through five deeply personal stories. Told as interwoven monologues, the ensemble of five actors embody voices of exile, loneliness, resilience, and hope. Botto, drawing on collaborations with humanitarian organizations, transforms statistics into human narratives. Each account becomes both an act of empathy and of activism, revealing the wounds of displacement while affirming the universal drive to endure and belong.

Source: https://www.iatitheater.org/shows/detail/invisible
Title: Anhi Mai Da Sufna (A Blind Old Woman’s Dream)

Geography: Asia > Southern Asia > Pakistan

Year: 2016

Produced by: Ajoka Theatre

Creative Team: Written by Shahid Nadeem; directed by Usha Ganguli

Synopsis: Inspired by true stories of people displaced during Partition, Anhi Mai Da Sufna concentrates on the difficulty of returning after migration. Mai Janki was separated from her native village, now on the Pakistani side of the border, and remains determined to see it again despite closed borders and visa restrictions. Ustad Rangoo made the opposite choice and remained in Lahore, but has become separated from relatives in Amritsar. The production considers how imagined journeys differ from those prevented by the state. This demonstrates that displacement continues long after the original border crossing. Migration is considered through memory, family separation and bureaucracy.

Source: Ajoka Theatre, official production page: https://ajoka.org.pk/anhi-mai-da-sufna/ Indian Express, production and Partition background: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/humsaya-theatre-for-peace-festival-play-depicts-true-stories-of-peo ple-from-punjab-and-pakistan-during-1947-partition-2940344/ The News on Sunday, production discussion: https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/560788-dreams-reality EAST ASIA East Asia Taiwan