Source Material
Asylum Monologues
Central Methodist Hall, Manchester
21st June 2007
On stage three actors and one musician remain seated throughout and the actors read from their scripts rather than having memorised the piece. No doubt this is partly due to the exigencies of production (actors are working free of charge so rehearsal times are necessarily limited) but it has the effect of reminding the audience that the actors are standing in for the refugees themselves and there is no attempt at physicalising the different speakers (apart from a good impersonation of Tony Blair in the Manchester performance) or at creating any accents other than the British ones of the actors themselves.
On the evening of the performance in Manchester there were short speeches from the Manager of Refugee Action, Manchester and from a spokesperson from WAST (Women Asylum Seekers Together) both offering possibilities for active involvement in various campaigns (see websites below).
Excerpt from Asylum Monologues script:
Actor 2: Imagine arriving in a foreign country, somewhere quite alien like China, for example, and being presented with a form 19 pages long in Chinese. You may have had a harrowing journey, you may still be traumatised by atrocities you experienced in your home country, you're desperately missing your family and it is a long time since you ate or slept. You are then met with a barrage of words you don't understand and suspicion as to your motives for entering the country. Unless someone is on hand for you to translate on arrival, you may not realise the urgency with which you have to get this form filled out.
Nadine: I had quite a good life before all this. I had my home in Spanish Town, I had my car, I had my dog, my cat, my fish, my children, I was working as a beautician, I was happy. Then in 2000 I was pounced on by these political gang members who were harassing people wanting them to vote for their party. It's a common thing in election times back home. Some people are killed, some run away overseas, leave their loved ones. It's just terrible where I come from. Being a tourist you don't see anything. You just see the tourist area. You don't see the real Jamaica.
Innocence: I was in detention for 22 months and in 4 different detention centres but Colnbrook near Heathrow was the worst detention centre I was in. It is like a maximum security prison. It's built in a way that it plays games with people's minds.
http://www.iceandfire.co.uk
http://www.iceandfire.co.uk/actorsforrefugees
http://www.refugee-action.org.uk
http://www.ncadc.org.uk
