In Their Own Words
"This live multimedia show, combining music, song, video, film and theatre, speaks for Britain's newest arrivals as they dodge borders, bullets and bureaucracy in their quest for safety and security from war-torn lands in Africa and the Middle East . It tells the human stories of people in the wrong place at the wrong time, and cuts through the myths, lies and prejudice surrounding the search for sanctuary in England 's green but sometimes not so pleasant land." ' They get free mobiles... don't they?' Press Release, Banner Theatre website
"The video ballad kind of harks back to Banner's early origins in the early seventies. Charles Parker was a key member of the company who was a BBC producer who produced a series of radio programmes called the radio ballads which intertwined interview material with music so we took that forward with the flexibility available through new technology and it was possible to intertwine DVD and song and music so Migrant Voices was the first video ballad as we call it." Dave Rogers, Artistic Director - Interview
"I hate the whole idea of asylum seekers. It comes out of this Blairite language about bloody job seekers, you know. I mean we used to talk about unemployed, like it's their problem that people haven't got work, it's not our problem. It's the same with asylum seekers, know what I mean? What's the big deal? People have been migrating to this country for centuries? Why do we have to have the supposedly good migrant who's an asylum seeker, therefore he's got some good reason to come here, and the rest who we can dis because they're not asylum seekers you know." Dave Rogers, Artistic Director - Interview
"Undoubtedly we're part of the documentary theatre movement. We worked with Ewan MacColl a lot in the early days, Charlie [Parker] worked with MacColl. So Living Newspaper and MacColl's Festival of Fools events were informing what we did. I don't call it verbatim theatre I just call it documentary theatre. We listen to people's words, how they express themselves, and the emotional content and use that as a basis for all our writing. It's amazing how it's all suddenly become flavour of the month whereas before it was 'Oh you do all that static stuff where actors don't act they just say somebody else's words.'" Dave Rogers, Artistic Director - Interview
