Art and Asylum – Chance meetings

Rural touring company New Perspectives has recently concluded a tour of a new play exploring the experiences of asylum seekers. Daniel Buckroyd explains how the project affected the company.

The Allotment started life as a chance meeting between writer Andy Barrett and a horticultural therapist at a barbecue, and quickly turned into a research process that involved a wide range of refugees and asylum seekers living and working in the East Midlands. It then went on to become one of the most challenging, and yet popular, new plays that New Perspectives has ever toured to regional rural community audiences.

From the outset, Andy wanted to explore the experiences of people arriving in the East Midlands from war-torn corners of the world in a way that would really engage a rural audience who have little direct contact with refugees and asylum seekers: to take the debate about the changing face of British society right to the heart of the English countryside.

No surprise then that The Allotment introduces us to a group of characters whose lives have been turned upside down by conflict  a Bosnian Muslim, a Serb, an Iraqi Kurd and a Somalian. What is arguably more surprising is the fact that, against the odds, Andys play is a comedy  a fact that certainly set it apart from much of the other work depicting refugees and asylum seekers at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the production was shortlisted for an Amnesty International Award. The production toured this autumn, and research undertaken alongside the tour confirmed that almost half of the audience for this show were new to the companys work, as well as revealing a particularly strong demand among rural theatre audiences for serious-minded, topical drama.

Overall, the experience of touring The Allotment has strengthened our resolve to create theatre that responds to social and cultural change in ways that are as entertaining as they are thought-provoking. We believe we are uniquely placed, in partnership with the regions rural touring schemes, to respond to the need for this kind of work and to find ways to measure its impact amongst rural communities.

Looking to the future we are preparing to tour a new play set in the world of migrant workers and gangmasters, developing working methods that place migrant communities closer to the heart of our creative processes, and exploring options to tour The Allotment nationally in 2008. Heres to chance meetings at barbecues!

Daniel Buckroyd is Artistic Director of New Perspectives Theatre Company.
w: http://www.newperspectives.co.uk