CLOSED LANDS
Why is the ‘free world’ obsessed with walls?
A unique fusion of poetry, satire, reportage, multimedia and traveller’s diary, Closed Lands, by French playwright Simon Grangeat, traces the history of modern walls – real and metaphorical – from Berlin to Mexico to Europe.
Beginning in 1989 with the euphoria for the fall of the wall – “the end of shame”, as it was described – it moves in space and time to Mexico, the Sahara desert, and the wall of water surrounding “Fortress Europe”, ending with the wall of bureaucracy faced by asylum seekers.
WRITTEN BY:
Simon Grangeat
TRANSLATED BY:
Laure Fernandez and LegalAliens
DIRECTED BY:
Becka McFadden
ASSOCIATE DIRECTION:
Jonathan Millington
LIGHT & PROJECTION DESIGNER:
Julien Bernard-Grau
CAST:
Luiana Bonfim (Angola/Portugal), Catharina Conte (Brazil),
Daiva Dominyka (Lithuania),
Becka McFadden (US/UK),
Lara Parmiani (Italy/UK)
SET UP & COSTUME DESIGN:
Laura Rouzet
SUPPORTED BY:
Arts Council England
LegalAliens’ powerful and evocative production features an all female international cast rotating through the roles of migrant, politician, citizen, CEO and a VIP bot, all part of a perverse and random mechanism. A live camera projects part of the action on screen, as our lives become increasingly part of a gigantic video game in which even the most dramatic situations – boats crossing the Med, border control techniques, the selling of weapons – can be sold to the public as glamorous products.
Based on factual research and testimonies, and performed by actors who are all migrants in the UK, Closed Lands chronicles the “Free world”‘s obsession with walls and our journey back to shame.
“With its eclectic approach to mixing theatrical styles, “Closed Lands”
certainly breaks down the fourth wall to entertain us”
“Shorn of images of poor migrants dead on beaches, the show is a fascinating take not on one individual story but how us, citizens of the west, have been sold a dangerous narrative”
“ From orgasmic fetishisation of weaponised border deterrents to choke holds used for deportations Closed Lands is a strikingly physical account of the industry of control on movement and the poisonous rhetoric which supports it”
Andrew J
Emmanuel W
Antony B
LegalAliens Theatre
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