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: The Claim

Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom

Year: 2018

Produced by: Produced by Tim Cowbury and Mark Maughan; supported by Shoreditch Town Hall

Creative Team: Written by Tim Cowbury; directed by Mark Maughan

Synopsis: The Claim examines the UK asylum interview system through Serge, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who fled to Uganda after his father was killed. His right to remain in Britain depends on whether two officials understand and believe the account he gives. The production stages the substantive asylum interview into a fast, absurd three-way exchange in which Serge’s words pass through translation and paraphrase until key details are distorted. In one example, his account of his father’s death is wrongly reshaped into an accusation against him. The central tension comes from Serge’s attempt to explain why he needs protection while the state demands a clear and consistent legally appropriate narrative. The play explores how seeking asylum is not as simple as a request for protection, but is a test of credibility and an exertion of institutional power.

Source: Shoreditch Townhall Event Listing for The Claim: https://shoreditchtownhall.com/whats-on/the-claim British Theatre Guide, Review of The Claim: https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/the-claim-shoreditch-town-15443 Royal Holloway, Publication details for The Claim: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/publications/the-claim/ What’s on Stage, Review of The Claim: https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/review-the-claim-shoreditch-town-hall_45579/ Sophie Parrott, Casting Director, Portfolio listing for The Claim: https://www.sophieparrottcasting.com/the-claim-shoreditch-town-hall-tour
Title: The Container

Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom

Year: 2007

Produced by: Young Vic revival; Digital Theatre capture

Creative Team: Written by Clare Bayley; directed by Tom Wright

Synopsis: Based on real-life events, The Container immersively stages the journey of asylum seekers being smuggled across Europe inside a sealed shipping container. In the Young Vic revival, the audience was placed inside an actual container with the performers emulating the darkness, proximity and heat of the container, central to the audience experience. Displaying the extremities of people-smuggling and dangers created by closed borders, the central conflict comes from the characters’ attempt to reach England whilst exhaustion and suspicion build within a confined space. The staging turns the spectators into uncomfortable witnesses whilst placing them under the physical conditions of hidden movement and migration. The production emphasises how border regimes prevent asylum seekers from migrating safely, forcing those who seek protection to opt for routes that intensify risk and dehumanisation.

Source: Digital theatre plus, The Container, Production video: https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/title/the-container Official London theatre, Event Listing for The Container: https://officiallondontheatre.com/show/the-container-105762/ British Theatre guide, Review of The Container at the Young Vic: https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/YVcontainer-rev
Title: The Dark Ages

Geography: Europe > Western Europe > Germany

Year: 2015

Produced by: Residenztheater Munich in cooperation with International Institute of Political Murder

Creative Team: Conceived, written and directed by Milo Rau; dramaturgy by Stefan Bläske and Sebastian Huber; music by Laibach.

Synopsis: The Dark Ages brings together performers from Bosnia, Serbia, Russia and Germany whose lives were shaped by war or political collapse. Their autobiographical accounts move from the end of the Second World War to the siege of Sarajevo. One performer recalls leaving Soviet Kazan, while another describes surviving the violence around Srebrenica. The production presents Europe as a continent that repeatedly produces its own exiles. Personal testimony is filmed live and projected above the stage. This places the source individual beside histories usually described through national events. Migration is considered through the portrayal of departure and the difficulty of arrival after political systems have collapsed. Resettlement in turn, merely changes the conditions under which the past can be accessed or narrated.

Source: International Institute of Political Murder and Residenztheater, official production press dossier: https://international-institute.de/wp-content/uploads/20150116_Press-kit_The-Dark-Ages.pdf Nachtkritik, review of the Munich premiere: https://nachtkritik.de/nachtkritiken/deutschland/bayern/muenchen/residenztheater/the-dark-ages-milo-rau- montiert-im-zweiten-teil-seiner-europa-trilogie-am-residenztheater-schauspieler-biografien-zu-einer-colla ge-aus-vertreibungs-und-verlust FRANCE
Title: The Diamond

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Year: 2023

Produced by: People’s Theatre Projec

Creative Team: Christin Eve Cato | Playwright: Christin Eve Cato Director: Chuk Obasi
Produced by People’s Theatre Project

Synopsis: The Diamond follows a group of detained immigrants who conspire against a dystopian government. They lead a revolution, but realize they will only be free when they remember who they are.

Source: https://thepeoplestheatre.org/somos-mas/
Title: The Dilemma of a Ghost

Geography: Africa > Western Africa > Ghana

Year: 2023

Produced by: Fiifi Coleman Productions

Creative Team: Original play by Ama Ata Aidoo; production led by Fiifi Coleman

Synopsis: The 2023 production of The Dilemma of a Ghost follows Ato as he returns to Ghana from the United States with his African-American wife, Eulalie. Neither side of the family has been prepared for the marriage. Ghana is an ancestral home connected to the colonial history of enslavement, but Ato still struggles with cultural placement and familiarity. Ato avoids interpreting the expectations of either side, leaving both his wife and relatives to misunderstand one another. The production complicates the language of diaspora return because shared racial history does not create immediate cultural belonging. Eulalie arrives as a descendant of people forcibly removed from Africa and a newcomer. Homecoming is an encounter with difference rather than a manner in which identity is preserved.

Source: MyJoyOnline, production information: https://www.myjoyonline.com/fiifi-coleman-productions-to-stage-the-dilemma-of-a-ghost-play-on-july-2 9/ The Guardian, production review: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/apr/21/theatre
Title: The Factory

Geography: Europe > Southern Europe > Greece

Year: 2018

Produced by:

Creative Team: Al Attar, Mohammad (Playwright) and Abusaada, Omar | Director

Synopsis: The Factory examines the alliances of money and power around the Syrian conflict through a documented case: a major cement factory investment launched in 2010 that continues operating “at any cost” as the uprising turns into war. Syrian actors chronicle a dark business game against the background of a disintegrating country.

Source: https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/the-factory
Title: The Five Vengeances

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2006

Produced by:

Creative Team: Jovanni Sy | Playwright: Jovanni Sy Director: Guillermo Verdecchia
Co-Director: Jovanni Sy

Synopsis: In The Five Vengeances, master swordswoman Fury sets out to avenge the murder of her bride-to-be, Bella, at the hands of the tyrannical Overlord. With help from Bella’s fierce sister, Shotgun, Fury must infiltrate the corrupt royal court of the Northern Lands. But vengeance proves treacherous, as Fury becomes entangled in the royal family’s own betrayals and power plays. A stylized mashup of Jacobean revenge tragedy and 1970s kung-fu cinema, the play is a wild, action-packed journey blending love, loss, loyalty—and razor-sharp justice.

Source: https://ttdb.ca/shows/the-five-vengeances/
Title: The Folding Wife

Geography: Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > Australia

Year: 2007

Produced by: Urban Theatre Projects and Blacktown Arts Centre with Anino Shadowplay Collective

Creative Team: Written by Paschal Daantos Berry; directed by Deborah Pollard; created with Valerie Berry and Anino Shadowplay Collective

Synopsis: The Folding Wife reconstructs a Filipino-Australian family history across several generations. Paschal Daantos Berry examines the lives of women whose choices are affected by colonial power and migration to Australia. The production uses shadow animation to allow remembered scenes to appear and disappear. The title suggests an identity that is repeatedly folded so it can fit changing political circumstances or expectations. Migration is presented as a direct journey from the Philippines to Australia. The production also considers American colonial influence and the way family stories alter when they are retold generation after generation. Photographs provide fragments of evidence, but they cannot establish a complete account. The work confronts migration through transmission, descendants inherit stories that are powerful but incomplete as performance becomes a way of preserving fragments of memory.

Source: Urban Theatre Projects, production archive: https://utp.org.au/event/the-folding-wife Diversity Arts Australia, Paschal Daantos Berry interview and production history: https://diversityarts.org.au/creative_lives/the-art-of-creating-with-family-performance-maker-writer-and-d ramaturg-paschal-daantos-berry-in-conversation-with-his-sister-actor-valerie-berry/
Title: The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Year: 2017

Produced by: TheatreWorks Silicon Valley

Creative Team: Written by: Min Kahng

Synopsis: The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga follows the four immigrants, Charlie, Frank, Fred and Henry, from Japan at the turn of the 20th century in the United States. The characters face historical obstacles of the time period like the Great Quake of 1906, Word War I, and anti-Japanese prejudice. The play is stylized through the Japanese art style of manga and the musical stylings of vaudeville and ragtime. The documentary comic book style highlights the experiences of migrants facing the idea of “the American Dream” in a different time period, but places it in the frame and style of the present.

Source: https://www.minkahng.com/works/four-immigrants | https://newplayexchange.org/script/1999906/the-four-immigrants-an-american-musical-manga
Title: The Frontliners

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2025

Produced by: Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre

Creative Team: Zahida Rahemtulla | Playwright: Zahida Rahemtulla Director: Derek Chan

Synopsis: A premiere production by Zahida Rahemtulla (The Wrong Bashir). This new comedic drama, takes audiences to an East Vancouver hotel in early 2016 where three beleaguered employees scramble to find homes for new families from Syria in the midst of a housing crisis.

Source: https://vact.ca/shows-and-events/frontliners/#more-3434