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IN THE LAB
REFUGE is a wordless play exploring displacement and migration drawn from personal stories of the 8-person performance collective with original sound design. It is performed in Larval Masks (see below).
REFUGE weaves together three threads:
- A linear, dramatic thread following a Girl protagonist who flees her homeland with her Father to a new country
- A darkly comic thread following Everyperson as they encounter the ridiculous and labyrinthine bureaucracy of applications, forms, lotteries, approvals, waitlists, and tests
- A poetic, imagistic thread using metaphor to embody the greater forces behind migration/displacement like climate disaster, politics and economics.
During their residency, the Collective will complete work on the play that was started at NACL last summer and will offer a preview of the full performance on July 19th.
Sources of REFUGE
At the end of 2021, 89.3 million people worldwide were displaced because of persecution, conflict, human rights violations or climate change. Each collective member has come to this project with a personal connection to migration or displacement. All of them feel the urgency NOW to humanize the face of the displaced/migrant experience to bring attention and compassion to the growing number of displaced people. They draw on stories from collective members originally from Argentina, Ghana, Greece, South Africa, and the USA.
What are Larval Masks?
Larval Masks are human characters in the “state of becoming.” They have a simple way of moving through the world and represent us at our most curious and vulnerable. Their otherworldly quality plunges the audience into the unsettling experience of being in an alien land. The masks evoke the intimacy of individual experience without settling on a specific person, time or place, allowing the story to transcend nationality and culture. The silent performance style transcends language, reaching audiences across linguistic borders.
