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: Dona Flor & Her 2 Husbands

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2001

Produced by: Electric Company Theatre

Creative Team: Carmen Aguirre
Co-written with Electric Company Theatre, based on the novel by Jorge Amado | Playwright: Carmen Aguirre
Co-written with Electric Company Theatre, based on the novel by Jorge Amado

Synopsis: Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands, adapted by Carmen Aguirre from Jorge Amado’s novel, follows a Brazilian woman torn between two men—her devoted but dull second husband and the sensual ghost of her deceased first. Set in 1940s Brazil, this vibrant, site-specific production blends music, dance, and Carnival spectacle across two venues. Produced by Electric Company Theatre with Latino collaborators, it’s an immersive, sensual exploration of desire, culture, and identity that invites the audience into Flor’s transformative journey between the material and spiritual worlds.

Source: https://www.electriccompanytheatre.com/production/dona-flor-and-her-two-husbands/
Title: Double Delicious

Geography: Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > Australia

Year: 2020

Produced by: Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP); presented by Sydney Festival

Creative Team: Concept and dramaturgy by Annette Shun Wah; directed by Darren Yap

Synopsis: Double Delicious invites five Asian-Australian performers to prepare a dish while recounting the family history attached to it. The production is interactive, the audience tastes the food, which makes cooking a material route into migration, instead of a symbolic representation of cultural difference. Stories of migration and departure are connected to recipes that change when locations or households alter. Cooking displays who performs the physical labour of cultural continuity and how practical knowledge is preserved or how it passes between generations. By placing spectators around the process of preparation, the production uses consumption as an interactive mode of storytelling to display how belonging is repeatedly practiced through exchange. Cultural inheritance survives because it can be adapted and changed.

Source: Sydney Festival, production archive: https://2020.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/double-delicious Arts on Tour, production and touring information: https://artsontour.com.au/tours/double-delicious/
Title: DRAGON’S TALE

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2023

Produced by:

Creative Team: Michael Hidetoshi Mori | Composed by Chan Ka Nin Libretto by Mark Brownell
Director: Michael Hidetoshi Mori

Synopsis: Profile: https://www.chankanin.com/blank-2

Source: https://tapestryopera.com/performances/dragons-tale/
Title: Dreams Without Borders

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Year: 2013

Produced by: Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras | Cornerstone Theatre Company

Creative Team: Collective creation / performance by Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras

Synopsis: Dreams Without Borders follows a group of immigrants at the Lancaster Detention Center. They must await their unknown fates within the walls of the detention center. The production takes place over a 24-hour period as the audience sees the hours count down by a clock and a voice that calls out the hours left. The different characters all go through their different journeys of migration and what led each of them to this moment. Each character has their own hopes, dreams, and fears that are released inside the detention center as the clock runs down.

Source: https://cornerstonetheater.org/teatro-jornalero/our-work/ | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_oN5ndPv_s
Title: Eatingthegames

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2015

Produced by: Hong Kong Exile

Creative Team: Milton Lim Playwright & | Director: Milton Lim Playwright & Performer: Conor Wylie

Synopsis: Eatingthegames is a provocative keynote-performance by Hong Kong Exile featuring Conor Wylie, blending East and West, business and art. Set against rising China-Canada trade ties, the piece critiques global capital and investment culture through the lens of a charismatic entrepreneur. Inspired by real events, it explores ethics, ambition, and the theatrics of finance, using a multidisciplinary approach to question the risks and desires driving international commerce. A hybrid of lecture, performance, and satire, eatingthegame stages business as theatre.

Source: https://www.hongkongexile.com/eatingthegamefull
Title: Ech’Chebka

Geography: Africa > Northern Africa > Algeria

Year: 2024

Produced by: Association Choâla pour le théâtre et le cinéma under the Algerian Ministry of Culture and Arts

Creative Team: Written by Ali Tamert; directed and designed by Abdelghani Chentouf

Synopsis: Ech’Chebka centres on Latcha, a young man waiting to undertake what he calls his final voyage across the sea. Fati and Sennour attempt to stop him. Sennour’s son disappeared during a similar journey. This provides an emotional depth considering unresolved loss and personal history. Through the use of fishing nets as the central scenic image, this links the promise of maritime escape to entrapment. The production also uses comedy to question stories that present irregular migration as a direct path towards success. Latcha’s determination is not dismissed as irrational. It grows from social conditions in which remaining appears to offer little future. By staging the argument immediately before departure, the production explores the narrow interval in which hope and fatal risk become difficult to separate.

Source: Radio Algérienne, production and touring information: https://news.radioalgerie.dz/fr/node/56184 Western Africa Ghana:
Title: Ecos

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2025

Produced by: Diaspora Diaries Collective, Common Ground Arts Society, Mile Zero Dance

Creative Team: Written by Elisa Marina Mair-Sánchez, directed by Andrés F. Moreno

Synopsis: A bilingual (English/Spanish) theatre dance piece, Ecos tells the story of Amaya, who immigrated from Mexico to Canada with her family, who come from different backgrounds and are all immigrants themselves. Amaya attempts to connect to her past and her family through an ofrenda altar and tries to decide whether coming to Canada and severing her connection with her home was the right choice.

Source: https://commongroundarts.ca/event/ecos/ | https://12thnight.ca/2025/11/03/opening-the-doors-into-the-past-ecos-a-multi-generational-dance-theatre-piece-from-common-ground-a-review/
Title: El metge de Lampedusa

Geography: Europe > Southern Europe > Spain

Year: 2017

Produced by: Temporada Alta with Teatre Lliure

Creative Team: Adapted by Anna Maria Ricart; directed by Miquel Gorriz; performed by Xicu Masó

Synopsis: El metge de Lampedusa is based on the experiences of Pietro Bartolo, a doctor who examined migrants arriving on Lampedusa and the bodies of those who died during the crossing. The solo production adapts the autobiographical book ‘Salt Tears; which describes a doctor’s experiences of treating African migrants. Moving between personal observations and medical practice, Bartlo describes treating dehydration and injuries whilst recognising that clinical care cannot address the border system producing these repeated emergencies. His testimony deftly examines those individuals whose journeys have been often considered as statistics of failure and success. The production also examines the burden placed on the island’s residents, expected to respond to decisions made elsewhere in Europe.

Source: Teatre Lliure archive, production programme: https://arxiu.teatrelliure.com/es/heritageobject/tll-issuu-0183—el-metge-de-lampedusa-programa-de-ma/ Teatre de Salt, production listing and background: https://www.teatredesalt.com/programacio/el-metge-de-lampedusa/ Cultura SCF, production listing and synopsis: https://www.culturascf.cat/ca/programacio/c/1825-el-metge-de-lampedusa.html
Title: Elegy

Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom

Year: 2012

Produced by: Transport Theatre / Theatre503; later Australian premiere by Lab Kelpie

Creative Team: Written and directed by Douglas Rintoul

Synopsis: Douglas Rintoul’s Elegy follows a young Iraqi man whose sexuality places him in danger in post-invasion Iraq, forcing him to flee toward the United Kingdom. Based on verbatim interviews, the production draws on testimony with refugee survivors of regimes and crafting a third-person narrative following an unmanned young man and his experiences in his journey from his home country to Europe. Focusing intimately on the persecution of LGBTQ+ of community during the US-led invasion of 2023, Rintoul emphasises the strength of the survivors, illuminating the refugee experience as survival must come before a desire for belonging and acceptance. Elegy widens the archive’s attention to sexuality as a factor in forced movement. The production asks how legal refuge can still leave trauma unresolved.

Source: Lab Kelpie, Australian Premiere of Elegy listing: https://labkelpie.com/elegy/ British Theatre Guide, Review of Elegy by Anna Watts: https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/elegy-theatre503-8148 Arts hub, Review of Elegy by Richard Watts: https://www.artshub.com.au/news/reviews/elegy-250340-2351001/
Title: Emilia（2025）

Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada

Year: 2025

Produced by: fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company

Creative Team: Playwright：Marissa Orjalo

Synopsis: Synopsis：Based on the history of les filles du roi with a narrative structure inspired by Emilia Galotti by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, this piece will connect land (both near and afar), women, and untold histories. Emilia serves as a powerful exploration of the human spirit, shedding light on the intertwined destinies of women and nations, and the enduring struggle of love and duty –or the personal and the political.

Source: Source：https://www.marissaorjalo.com/writing