Director: Sue Buckmaster
Devised by: Theatre-Rites and Agudo Dance Company
Adapted from an earlier promenade production at the Manchester International Festival, Journey of a Refugee is something special: a family production that combines a diverse range of theatre practices (puppetry, music, dance) and audience interaction to get to the heart of the refugee experience in a way immensely accessible for children and thought-provoking for adults. It’s chaotic, but it’s unforgettable.
The show primarily follows the story of Zain (Mohamed Sarrar) as he travels from Sudan to England via several risky, beautifully conjured via theatre, methods: a tiny toy truck represents the movement across the desert; a perilous boat and a drowning puppet. The emphasis is on using image and movement to convey the terror and struggle of the journey in a way that is occasionally too long and plot-wise difficult to follow but stays firmly fixed in the head after watching. The Stanley Arts Centre too is transformed into a perilous space, one which expands miraculously into the different areas of the theatre as Zain and fellow refugee Ali (Adi Detemo) are detained. It’s a truly immersive promenade production.
The immersion is helped by the strengths of this fluidly moving cast. Sarrar carries the greatest emotional weight in the performance, as when he embraces his puppet mother before leaving for an unknown future. Kassi (Kassichana Okene-Jameson) and Daphne (Vivian Triantafyllopoulou), alongside Detemo, form his support chorus, moving beautifully throughout the intense dance pieces and also, in the immersive sections, providing a good handhold for the audience. Juliet Stevenson acts as the voice of the UK Border Control: a Big Brother, smooth-talking terror who the audience (both young and old) take delight in hitting with creased-up sheets at the end.
If you’re not a fan of audience participation, and if you have a particularly nervous child, this might not be the show for you: especially as the piece progresses, the audience becomes part of the action and there’s a lengthy sequence where you have to participate and get up on stage (and beyond). But the final dance number, incorporating the actors, audience guides and audience from eight and on, is a glorious reaffirmation of community and togetherness: that despite the horrendous methods used to get here, refugees can and will find a welcome somehow. It’s a gorgeous, politically engaged and beautifully created show.
Runs until 18 February 2024
