‘"Forced from many places into one": Representations of Migration in London-based Theatre and the Politics of Space'
Maber, Peter (2024) ‘"Forced from many places into one": Representations of Migration in London-based Theatre and the Politics of Space'. In: "Liminality and Border-Crossing in Contemporary English-Speaking Theatre"; European Society for the Study of English Conference, 26th-30th August 2024, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
This paper focuses primarily on works of contemporary English-language theatre by, about, and/ or performed by migrants in the UK. Works under study include Asif Khan’s *Willkommen* (2019); the LegalAliens Theatre Company’s *Ali in Wonder(Eng)land* (2023); and Joe Murphy’s and Joe Robertson’s/ Good Chance Theatre's *The Jungle* (2017), as well as the migratory Little Amal performance project derived from the latter (*The Walk*) (2021). The paper situates these works in the contexts both of London’s multiculturalism and the UK’s increasingly hostile environment for migrants, as well as in international contexts. Liminality is explored through consideration of the tensions in these works between movement and blockages, literal and figurative, across a range of dramatic modes. The paper, furthermore, seeks to illuminate the politics of such representations of space and time by drawing on the theorisations of human geographers. It engages with the ideas of Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau in relation to the enactment and subversion of spatial power, unpacking the specific implications of these for the subject of migration and the mediums of theatre and performance art. Building up a polyvalent sense of the stage, the paper attends both to the representation of the diverse geographical and cultural histories, present realities and possible futures of the plays’ migrant protagonists; and to the significance of staging space: for example, of representing the “Calais Jungle” in London’s West End, and of Little Amal’s five-month performance journey from Syria to the UK.
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