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Ice and Fire is a professional theatre company which was formed in January 2003 by award winning playwright Sonja Linden. Her plays have been produced in London and regional theatres in the UK as well as in the United States and Australia. Much of the impetus for forming the company came from Sonja’s seven year position as Writer-in-Residence at the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture.
AIMS OF THE ORGANISATION
The company is dedicated to:
- honouring the real life stories of individuals who have been displaced as a result of conflict
- channelling those stories into the production of high quality theatre and
- creating insight in to the experience of exile and asylum through education and outreach.
THE WORK Ice and Fire has produced two highly acclaimed plays (written by Sonja Linden): I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda, based on the true story of a Rwandan asylum seeker in the UK, and Crocodile Seeking Refuge, which tells the story of five individuals who have sought asylum in the UK. The company also has a dedicated education and outreach programme concentrating on developing drama and creative writing skills to explore the themes of asylum and displacement.
THE PROPOSALIn an interview in October 2004, Sonja Linden (Artistic Director) said that she thought the challenge for the company was to ‘reach out to people who are not sympathetic to these stories.’ This proposal goes some way to addressing that challenge, while still remaining true to the guiding objectives of the company as stated above.Ice and Fire have decided to embark on a new project in collaboration with Christine Bacon, former coordinator of Actors for Refugees, a national awareness-raising network in Australia. It is the only organisation of its kind in the world. Actors for Refugees was formed in Melbourne, Australia, in September 2001. Founding members, popular TV actors Alice Garner and Kate Atkinson, wanted to use the collective might of Australian actors to influence community attitudes toward refugees and asylum seekers and to encourage a humanitarian response to their plight. Australia, incidentally, has implemented some of the harshest asylum and refugee policies in the western world in recent years, and is well known for its mandatory detention regime. Hundreds of actors - some household names, others not so well known - have participated in the network. The general public were particularly ready to listen to television or film actors and often came along initially to ‘spot the celebrity’, but then were introduced to the magnitude of an issue they had hardly given a thought to, and were suitably shocked and in many cases, spurred on to action. Another factor which contributed to a high level of interest was that all events (apart from those with the primary purpose of fundraising) were free, with donations encouraged after the show.Four years on, Actors for Refugees has a large support base and a strong presence in refugee advocacy, with involvement in broad activities such as campaigns, lobbying and public speaking, awareness-raising events, as well as performing their two shows - Something to Declare and Club Refuge - to a broad range of audiences throughout Australia. Productions have been staged in major theatres, large public spaces, churches, schools, bars, gardens, homes – even to federal politicians at Parliament House. Actors for Refugees has been very successful at slotting itself into other refugee and asylum rights campaigns by offering their production as a ‘service’ and the more active and well-informed actors as guest speakers. They also mount productions of their own, depending on resources and who is available.Ice and Fire is currently seeking funding to create and maintain a similar network in the UK, as well as developing a highly tourable and generative production, currently using the working title Asylum Monologues, which the network will use as one of its main advocacy tools. This production will be made up largely of first-hand testimony of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK, but also aims to arm the audience with information in order to both correct misconceptions and to inspire others to advocate on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers. To this end, the script will be as much an educational and awareness-raising as an artistic endeavour. It will be based on the Australian model, in that the actors in the network will volunteer their time, profile and skills to the production. The production does not need rehearsal or direction in most cases, as it is simply read out by four or five actors who are accompanied by music. The music will differ depending on the musician(s) who are encouraged to use his/her/their judgement about what music to play.Christine Bacon will be employed (initially for a two year period) as a consultant to set up and maintain the network, source interviewees and other material for the scripts, recruit and manage volunteers, organise events and promote the network and the production. Along with having a successful track record in this position in Australia, Christine has also done a significant amount of academic work in this area, most recently completing a Masters in Forced Migration at Oxford University, where her main research area was detention of asylum seekers in the UK. She currently completing a six-month (maternity leave) contract at the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, based in London.Ice and Fire believe that this network, accompanied by the flagship production, will add a unique dimension to the public debate on asylum and refugee policy in the UK. Actors have a very privileged relationship with the public and as communicators, they understand the potency of language and the powerful and damaging role it has played in shaping existing popular opinion. Ice and Fire believe that the work of Actors for Refugees in the UK can redress discriminatory representations of refugees with more accurate information, but also with personal stories that appeal to the best in the British public, rather than inflame easily stirred fears. The network and the production attached to it will aim to combat the demonising of asylum seekers and reverse misunderstanding and suspicion of them in the wider community. Ice and Fire will also work towards creating a more theatrical, rehearsed and character-driven version of Asylum Monologues, which can then be toured as a dramatic production in its own right. Another aspect of this project is an educational outreach production, which will be piloted shortly.In the short term, our objectives are thus:
- Conduct research and a wide range of interviews to be used to write/compile a script with the working title Asylum Monologues. This script will have two versions: the first will be for a 45 minute (maximum 1 hour) highly tourable, generative, economical production, which will not need rehearsal and can be mounted according to a formula without much preparation; the second, a theatrical work in its own right, rehearsed and directed, driven more by story and character than awareness raising and education.
- Develop and maintain a growing network of actors around the UK, under the broad banner of ‘Actors for Refugees’. This network will use Asylum Monologues as their main advocacy tool, but will also participate in various campaigns where appropriate. One of the main objectives will be to mount the production as many times and in as many places around the UK as possible. At the end of each production, there will be opportunity for a question and answer session, and audience members will be given a document entitled ‘10 Things You Can Do’, in order to ensure they do not leave simply feeling helpless and despondent about what they have heard.
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