Dear Home Office
2016 – 17
A celebration of boyhood, resilience and coming of age.
An appeal to those in power, uniquely created with and performed by a group of eight refugee young men who arrived in the UK as children from Afghanistan, Albania, Eritrea and Somalia. Searching for safety. Without their families. Holding on to their hopes and dreams for the future. Abdul, Awet, Emirjon, Faheem, Goitom, Mohamed and Syed play versions of themselves on stage, offering a window into their world and the challenges they are now facing – navigating immigration and asylum interviews, assessments to prove their age, fitting in at college, buying coats for an English winter and learning to live alongside each other in Local Authority Care.
With the number of unaccompanied minors arriving in the UK on the rise, and the vast majority of them male, Dear Home Office explores multiple genres to tell their stories, using film, live music, dance, spoken word and comedy to offer vibrant alternatives to standard refugee narratives.
Written and directed by Dawn Harrison and Rosanna Jahangard.
Created in partnership with Afghan Association Paiwand with support from Southbank Centre. Funded by Arts Council England, with additional funding from the John Lyons Charity School Holiday Fund.
Starring
Abdul Hadi Pardis
Awet Mohamed
Emirjon Hoxhaj
Faheem Azimi
Goitom Fesshaye
Jordy Duffy
Kate Duffy-Syedi
Mohamed Shuuriye Muumin
Syed Haleem Najibi
Sied Mohamedali
performed at:
Alchemy Festival (Southbank Centre), London
SOAS University, London
RADA, London
Underbelly, Edinburgh
Pleasance Theatre, London
Being A Man Festival (Southbank Centre), London
Bunker Theatre, London
praise for Dear Home Office
‘Ragged but essential theatre… powerful account of hidden lives, unheard voices’ Lyn Gardner
★★★★ ‘Dear Home Office is perhaps one of the best examples of art for a cause that you’ll see this festival.’
‘As this is their first time on stage, it’s a brave venture, and they deserve all credit for taking control of their own representation’ Three Weeks
★★★★ ‘Heartwarming, educational and humorous, this is a bold piece of theatre making that works admirably to win over the huge audience out there who want to hear its emotive message’ The Stage
‘Although the full names of the young actors are not used, they are impressive performers with a terrific sense of fun and force of personality, who – working in a language that is not their own – tells us more in a short hour about the current refugee crisis, and the UK’s questionable response to it, than we could learn from standard news bulletins in months’ The Scotsman
‘A vivid and touching exploration of what home means’ | ‘The films of the boys settling in for Christmas away from families and marveling over snow deeply poignant, and it takes a hard heart to resist. These accounts are far too important to be kept secret’ The List
‘Poignant and powerful, Dear Home Office has a message we should all be listening to’ Ed Fest Magazine
‘Dear Home Office is bloody brilliant. The authenticity and proximity of them to the story you’re hearing is absolutely remarkable…These people have got virtually no experience in performing whatever, but they’re getting up and telling their story in a really unique way, and that’s exactly what the Fringe should be about’ Mark Thomas (comedian and political activist)