THEATRE AND/AS SOLIDARITY: PUTTING YOURSELF IN THE SHOES OF A REFUGEE THROUGH PERFORMANCE

In this post Marta Niccolai provides a narrated presentation of her contribution to the recently published Refuge in a Moving World Open Access volume edited by Southern Responses to Displacement PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh. Her chapter, ‘Theatre and/as solidarity: Putting yourself in the shoes of a refugee through performance,’ focuses on Teatro di Nascosto or Hidden Theatre, founded and directed by Annet Henneman. The theatre places refugees and their stories at the centre of its work, echoeing Southern Responses to Displacement approach framed around participatory co-production of knowledge with refugees, centralising refugees’ own experiences and perspectives of displacement and responses to displacement.

Marta Niccolai’s chapter (pp. 193-209 in Refuge in a Moving World) examines the concept of ‘hospitality’ both in relation to Annet Henneman’s visits to the Middle East and in relation to the reception of refugees in Italy. This concept is also a focus of the Southern Responses to Displacement project as we examine how local communities, civil society groups, local, national and international secular and faith-based organisations, and refugees themselves, respond to the arrival of refugees from Syria. The chapter also details the methodologies used by Henneman to create theatrical events, and offers an analysis of two of the theatre’s performances.

You can access the presentation below:

Featured image: Refugees, asylum seekers, actors from Middle East and Europe reherse and live together as a community. (c) Marta Niccolai.

If you found this piece of interest you can listen to Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s Inaugural Lecture ‘Refuge in a Moving World: beyond hospitality and hostility‘ here, and access the recommended reading below:

Carpi, E. (2019) Intermediaries in Humanitarian Action:  The Case of Lebanon

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2019) Exploring refugees’ conceptualisations of Southern-led humanitarianism

Greatrick, A. and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2017) The roles of performance and creative writing workshops in refugee-related research

MOAS Podcast (2017) Refugee Art, Performance and Forced Migration

Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2016) “Writing the Camp”

Sheringham, O. (2019) Sharing stories and the quiet politics of welcome

Schneider, H. & Sadder, I. (2020) ‘How Did it Feel to Ask those Questions?’ – An Email Exchange about Experiencing Research on Displacement.