In this essay, we critically reflect upon the ephemeral nature of theatre. Such a reflection becomes particularly important in participatory refugee theatre, since the process of participants' bearing witness to experiences of trauma and violence is emphasised as the core impetus. To this end, we investigate the experiences of Syrian young adults…

This article theorises how Akira Takayama with his theatre company Port B facilitates large-scale multi-sited performance works in cities across the globe, which expand the physical architecture of the theatre and utilise digital communications technology. To probe the relation between theatre and the contemporary city, the article interrogates…

This photo essay reflects on Rafiki Theatre's recent work exploring Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) issues in refugee camps in Northern Uganda. The images portray the context, challenges and ways in which Rafiki responded to the aims set by the project donor.

This article reflects on the ethics and process of writing and performing the play "This Is Us" with a group of rejected asylum seekers from Deportation Centre Sjaelsmark in Denmark. Positioned within larger frameworks of political and media hostility, the group pushed for a more radical approach of 'not just theatre', but called instead…

Metaxis offers a powerful, yet elusive space for learning. We argue that authentic questions can provoke compelling metaxis moments where students and their teachers straddle two worlds at one time: the fictional and the real. We report findings from two New Zealand research projects in primary schools where we investigated the precursors to…

This article offers a discussion of two interactive museum installations, 'Remembering the Children: Daniel's Story' at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and the main exhibit at the Humanity House Museum in the Hague, Netherlands. Both are examples of what I term "self-guided dramas," taking the…

This conversation traces the creation of Todos Festival, one of the most important international socially engaged multi-arts festivals in Southern Europe. In dialogue with artistic director, Madalena Victorino, the festival will be portrayed as a space for encounter and performative exploration of difference, linking marginalised migrant and…

As youth media creation programmes proliferate, educators and practitioners are learning how to develop stories that interrupt hegemony and point to new ways of being. This research, carried out in an ethnically diverse middle school, highlights the way digital storytelling as an applied theatre praxis brought complexity to student work. The role…

During the winter of 2016, I carried out an artistic project in Barcelona entitled 'Performing Home' that aimed to explore the affective and social challenges that artists in political asylum or refuge cope with. The project began with a simple question: "where in public spaces do artists in asylum feel 'at home'?" It explored how public…

In order to claim asylum in the UK, lesbians and gay men are required to 'prove' their sexual orientation during an interview, demonstrating the dangers that their sexuality poses for them in their countries of origin. Playwrights who create verbatim theatre addressing LGBTI asylum issues will also interview contributors eliciting personal…

Ensuing from the concept of Documentality (Steyerl), this paper proposes to reframe documentary practices in refugee theatre. This is based on the observation that documentary theatre during the 'refugee crisis' in 2015 extensively negotiated the role of documents within bureaucratic performances (Jeffers). Following the notion of the document as…

As neoliberalism infiltrates the foundations of education and arts-based practices, the authors of this article propose an applied theatre approach, based on the celebration of people who feel marginalised, to defy the notions of individualistic, self-centred, and out-put oriented goals that impact how students engage with and view the arts in…

This article argues that in a society transformed by an increasing bureaucratic nexus of migration, artistic responses to political crises are particularly effective when working with institutions. To probe the prevalent discourse on the efficacy of performance art, the article interrogates "Grandhotel Cosmopolis" through a lens of…

Originally a coping mechanism for an artist housed in a Direct Provision Centres while seeking asylum in Ireland, "Asylum Archive" has become much more than that. In 2018, it is now a collaborative archive, interactive and intermedial online document, and a scholarly research project. This iteration includes five new images of Railway…

In September 2015, and in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, there were widespread calls in New Zealand urging the Government to raise its annual Refugee Quota. Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox argued that New Zealand could afford to take on more refugees as part of its global citizenship and suggested that New Zealand's policy might be shaped…