Border Crossings, an extraordinary company dedicated to intercultural theatre, film, festivals and community projects, celebrates its three decades with the launch of a handsome and intriguing book, Checkpoint: 30 Years of Border Crossings.
If Border Crossings hasn’t been on your radar so far, this is a good time to take note.
What makes it unique is the sheer variety of its imaginative projects and its global reach. An early production of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer was performed in Brazil, Egypt, France and Hungary. Other plays were then performed everywhere from Mauritius and the Seychelles to India, Zimbabwe and China.
But Border Crossings is far from standing for some outmoded form of cultural imperialism, importing Western high culture to developing countries. On the contrary, director Michael Walling and assistant director Lucy Dunkerley are committed to developing projects with some of the most marginalised people in the world, from Syrian refugees to members of the London Māori community.
Now based in Ireland, Border Crossings produces films and apps, such as the 2023 Songstreets, which guides people on a musical and historical walk through Brixton. The Gaza Monologues (2023) was an online reading in response to the attack on Gaza. 2024 saw the opening of a new musical, The Mouth of the Gods, based on indigenous composers from 18th-century South America. Work has currently started on The Legend of Europa with the Théâtre du Soleil (France), Teatro dell’Argine (Italy), Riksteatern (Sweden) and The Fence (Sweden).
A thoughtful discussion at the launch between Walling, Dunkerley and the book’s author, Tongan New Zealander, Jasmin ‘Ofamo’oni, focused on the importance of the checkpoint and the border crossing as metaphors for places of encounter and exchange. A checkpoint is also, Walling said, in summing up, a moment of attention. In response to a question about the direction of Border Crossings, he talked of the need in a dangerous world to go deeper, concluding with the tragic loss of proper mourning ceremonies during Covid: ‘We need to find a place for ceremony.’
Took place on 1 July 2026
Checkpoint: 30 Years of Border Crossings by Jasmin ‘Ofamo’oni, published by Border Crossings, is out now at £20
