Last Updated on 5 June 2021 by Showcall Editorial Team
London’s Old Vic Theatre has announced the writers and actors for its online monologue series, Home?, curated by Noma Dumezweni
The writers and performers have been announced for The Old Vic’s monologue series, Home?, exploring the refugee experience.
Curated by actor and refugee-child Noma Dumezweni, the plays – all world premieres – will be presented for free to mark Refugee Week which runs from 14 to 20 June 2021.
Available to watch on YouTube from 14 June, the London theatre is releasing three productions, created in collaboration with refugee artists.
Now I’m Gonna Get Paid is written by Dina Nayeri, author of award-winning book The Ungrateful Refugee, and will be performed by Betsabeh Emran.
The Displaced is written by Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer, and will be performed by Elizabeth Chan, Taheen Modak, John Pfumojena and Michael Phong Le.
Then and Now is written by Natasha Walter, director and founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women, and will be performed by Harriet Walter.
All three of the plays are directed by Old Vic Baylis director, Katy Rudd, and developed with dramaturg Annabel Bolton.
The monologues will celebrate and recognise those who have sought safety from their homes, their place within our collective community and the journey that it took to get there.
Dumezweni said: “Home? We’re all looking for it or pining, yearning for it, at the very least, the idea of it. Home is connection. To another, a community. A moment. A power element. ‘I am a refugee child. I am a grown human. I am here.’
“The voices who speak to this worldwide journey, physical and emotional are desperately needed. I thank The Old Vic for gifting me this curating gig. I learned. Our writers’ voices were a privilege to get involved with.”
Home? is part of The Old Vic’s One Voice series, conceived by Old Vic artistic director Matthew Warchus and funded by the TS Eliot Estate, celebrating the rawest of theatre forms: a single voice on a stage without scenery and with nothing to rely on but words.
It follows Queers, curated by Mark Gatiss, which was originally commissioned in 2017 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality and still available to watch on BBC iPlayer and YouTube. The Old Vic will be releasing two new commissions with stories from the LGBTQ+ community to mark this year’s Pride Month.
