London Premiere For Drama Based On True-Life Refugee Experiences Announced

Badac Theatre's The Journey is a compelling, fearless, intense and immersive slice of drama that is true to the experiences of refugees from across the globe fleeing conflict and, sometimes, certain death. It has its world premiere at London's Draper Hall on 2nd and 3rd November.before touring to both theatre and non-theatre venues through November and December.

To research the play director Steve Lambert visited Lebanon and camps on the Syrian border to learn of the desperate measures people can be forced to endure as they strive to survive. In the UK he worked with refugee communities and support organisations as well as Edinburgh based poet Ghazi Hussain, a former Palestinian refugee who fled Syria to escape torture and imprisonment - and was twice repatriated before being given leave to stay in Britain.

Describing her views on the refugee crisis actor Juliet Stevenson, who took a refugee family into her home, said 'We have a legal and moral obligation to protect people fleeing bombs, bullets and tyrants, and throughout history those people have enriched our society.'

Central characters in the play are a displaced mother and child who struggle to hold darkness and despair at bay during a punishing trek from their devastated, war ravaged homeland to a destination of perceived safety and security.

Steve Lambert noted 'All over the world people are being forced to flee their homes to escape war, racial and religious persecution and sometimes worse. Often the countries they seek refuge in treat them as at best inconvenient and sometimes as undesirable, unwelcome and a threat. Perhaps if we had a better understanding of what they have been through we may be better able to show compassion. No one abandons their home if that home is safe and welcoming'.

The Journey tells of the emotional, psychological and physical effects experienced by those forced to flee their homes.

Since the company's launch in 1999, Badac Theatre Company has become established as one of the UK's most controversial and confrontational theatre companies. As creators of extreme political art and adherents of Antonin Artaud's 'Theatre of Cruelty' their unflinching work is brave, dark, all consuming and stunning in every meaning of the word. Highlighting rights violations around the world it provokes extreme reactions and polarises critics and audiences alike. Many find its brutality intensely moving and affecting, some leave, shocked and shaken. www.badactheatre.com

Battersea Arts Centre described Badac as one of British Theatre's best kept secrets and actor, writer and director said Steven Berkoff added 'The visceral power of Badac's work is extremely rare'.

On tour the play will be performed in a mix of both theatre and non-theatre spaces, in areas with a refugee population and with low engagement with the arts. 'It's too easy to just go to the usual touring theatre's and NPO Arts Centre's' said Lambert. 'Audiences can watch a show for an hour then return to comfortable warm homes to talk about inequality. I want to try to reach people who know about injustice from first hand experience'.

The Journey by Badac Theatre Company

A passionately compelling, fearless, intense and immersive slice of drama that is true to the experiences of refugees from across the globe, fleeing conflict and, sometime, certain death.

Preview Wednesday 31st October - 8.00pm £pay what you can

Colchester Arts Centre, Church Street CO1 1NF

£pay what you can 01206 500900 www.colchesterartscentre.com

Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd November 7.30pm

London Draper Hall 1 Howell Walk London SE1 6TL

£10/£8 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/theatre-draperhall-the-journey-2-3-november-tickets-50144314996

Then touring, see www.badactheatre.com for dates

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