“Ali was home. Things were not as good as when they were children… Ali wanted to leave, but wasn’t sure where to go… Suddenly a white rabbit in a Union Jack appeared…”
Ali arrives at the border of a strange land but entering isn’t as simple as it looks. Random questioning, people shouting ‘illegal alien!,’ and to make things worse Ali’s body keeps changing size. Will Ali ever be able to regain control?
Fun, ironic, and poetic, Ali in Wonder(Eng)land is devised by participants in LegalAliens’ free weekly classes for migrants and refugees. The show uses the familiar Lewis Carroll frame but with an absurdist, contemporary twist, mixing characters inspired by Alice in Wonderland with original material and extracts from the notorious Life in the UK test.
Performers take turns in playing Ali through a series of encounters with grotesque civil servants, mellifluous do-gooders, bigots with magic sunglasses that make foreigners disappear, two Home Secretaries and even… a Quing! The narration is from time to time interrupted by monologues sharing personal experiences of migration, some funny, some melancholic, some brutal.
LegalAliens Theatre is a Haringey-based, woman-led international ensemble dedicated to platforming migrants and refugees as artists, creatives and audiences.
LegalAliens Theatre is a Theatre of Sanctuary.
To find out more visit legalalienstheatre.com
Credits
Performed and devised by participants in LegalAliens’ sessions for migrants and refugees
- Devised by: LegalAliens Community Ensemble
- Director: Lara Parmiani
- Associate Director: Hester Welch
- Associate Director: Sara Corso
- Dramaturgy: Lara Parmiani
- Costume Design: Cieranne Kennedy-Bell
- Projection Design: Edalia Day
- Light Design: Sharon Masterson
Funded by the Lottery Community Fund with thanks to the Engine Room, Tottenham Hale
If you have any particular concerns or questions you have about the performance, please contact our team and we do our best to help.