Picturing This Refugee
In the middle of the room a pile of objects and materials sit.
4 pristine white double sheets, 1 vivid strip of tartan, 1 vibrant stripe of floral cotton, 4 rich red flowers, 1 plain blanket, numerous slips of paper, a white sieve, a large bowl of cocoa powder,
1 rock painted white and 1 bulky bag of soil.
What they mean
Each one of these items is attached to a phrase or story told by an asylum seeking woman or refugee living in Glasgow. The soil represents one woman’s hunger for her homeland – ‘I am hungry. Hungry for the dust, stones and shrubs I left behind’ – the blanket represents night-time for another woman – ‘this is the worst time for me. I don’t sleep. I lie in bed scared’ – the material represents some of the fashion shows the women interviewed have participated in – ‘by seeing our traditional costumes and fabric people can learn a little about our culture and it shows that really we are all cut from the same cloth.’
The performance
On 28th May at 12 noon I shall be performing a 5 minute piece of theatre called Picturing This Refugee in the Great Hall of Kelvingrove Art Gallery. The performance will celebrate the launch of the Refugee Stories exhibition and will also be screened worldwide on Tuesday 21st June as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Five Minute Theatre. The piece will use the above objects to tell the story of one woman’s journey from danger in her homeland to building a new life in Glasgow.
Almost there
Today I have the final rehearsals, piecing the objects together to create a stage picture that illustrates some of the experiences of refugees living in Glasgow. Of course, in five minutes the show can only give a brief glimmer of insight into these women’s stories but it’s exciting to know that part of the story of refugees living in Glasgow is not only going to be told in Scotland’s largest tourist attraction but for five minutes it will be beamed around the world.
