Award-winning writer highlights refugees' struggle

Aisha is an award-winning theatre producer, playwright and literary fellow at the Royal Literary Fund

The testimonies of first and second generation migrants are being pushed to the forefront of conversation at a theatre event during Refugee Week.

Award-winning writer Aisha Zia has used inclusivity to create both a play and platform for the stories of underserved communities.

The 43-year-old, from Peterborough, is taking part at a Key Theatre event in the city on Thursday and bringing her play to the stage there in August.

She said she wanted to "subvert the media narrative around refugees and migrants at a prescient time in our history".

The play Refugee! tells the story of four characters in search of belonging

Refugee Week runs from 17 to 23 June and aims to bring together people from different backgrounds to "connect beyond labels".

On Thursday, the Key Theatre is hosting a night of monologues, music and poetry, to pay tribute to "all those who have been displaced".

Meanwhile, her play Refugee! weaves together "important interviews, conversations and real-life testimonies from the performers, migrant, refugee and sanctuary seeking communities".

Ms Zia said: "It's called Refugee! because everyone has an idea of what that means.

"I want people to go in and be deprogrammed, then come out with a different understanding of the word."

The play had been created for "people who do not think theatre is for them", she said.

Inclusivity had been "built into how we are devising and creating the play", she added, with cast members and creatives in the production being first or second generation migrants to the UK.

"This is creating new opportunities for culturally underserved communities in Britain whose stories are often not seen on stage and can be marginalised as artists off the stage," she said.

'Human rights'

As a British Pakistani, Ms Zia said her interest in migration piqued during Brexit when she was "shocked" by how many people voted "leave".

"I would class myself as an economic migrant because my parents migrated in the '70s and '80s... so I was most shocked when I found people in migrant communities who came before were voting 'leave'.

"I was horrified. I just felt that I had to do something about this."

She hoped her play could "subvert the media narrative" around refugees and migrants.

"Post Brexit, and with the anti-immigration sentiments lingering to the next general election... we are currently witnessing a complete collapse of society, our civil liberties and basic human rights."