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A Letter from Home was a performance produced in partnership between In Place of War and the Exodus Project as part of the Exodus Onstage! theatre season. The project aimed to provide new perspectives on the relationship of theatre and performance to questions of identity, especially the remaking of identity after war and displacement. In a fusion of theatrical and musical performance, the play integrated moments of singing and dancing through the piece via musical interludes performed by the Congolese-British band, Britannia Rumba. The play was conducted with communities in Manchester affected by war, namely refugees and asylum seekers from Central Africa and the Great Lakes region (especially the Democratic Republic of Congo). The project engaged approximately 10 men of varying ages (including young people) and a few women in a partly scripted, partly devised performance based on shared experiences of asylum in the UK.
A Letter from Home was originally inspired by the experiences of a local Congolese refugee who fled the DRC as an unaccompanied minor. However, the performance ultimately tells a more general story about the reasons why refugees leave their countries of origin, their experience of the asylum system in the UK and the questions of identity that ensue. The main plot is centred on a refugee family who receive a letter from the Congo stating that their sister, Wana, has been kidnapped by an armed group in the DRC. The play explores the family's grief and worry, the difficulties of claiming asylum in the UK, the various pressures on the family emanating from a desire to both fit into the UK and retain their African heritage, and especially, the confusions these multiple and sometimes conflicting pressures bring for the younger generation.
