Staging Asylum: Contemporary Australian Plays about Refugees

$34.99

'While the theatre stands up for the despised, Australian culture and decency are not yet dead.' - Thomas Keneally

The first of its kind, this timely anthology brings together six contemporary Australian plays that offer a range of narratives and perspectives on asylum seekers. A vexed issue within the Australian community - particularly among politicians, who often use asylum seekers to further their own ends - this collection contributes to Australia's ongoing discourse on unauthorised asylum seekers, immigration detention, border control and the right to belong.

This eclectic collection includes:

CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident)
by Version 1.0

A smart, ironic verbatim work that deals with the Children Overboard Affair and the SIEV X disaster.

Also published in Remixing Politics


The Rainbow Dark
by Victoria Carless

A surreal domestic satire about immigration detention.


The Pacific Solution
by Ben Eltham

Which takes armchair cricket commentary as a point of departure for a farce about the Howard government's excision of migration territory.


Halal-el-Mashakel
by Linda Jaivin

Which looks at the friendship between two detained asylum seekers.


Journey of Asylum - Waiting
devised by Catherine Simmonds

A series of vignettes based upon the personal experiences of asylum seekers and refugees living in Melbourne.


Nothing But Nothing
by Towfiq Al-Qady

An autobiographical play about childhood and war.


With a main Introduction as well as separate introductions to each play by Editor and Drama Lecturer Dr Emma Cox, Staging Asylum recognises the crucial role that theatre has played - and continues to play - in one of Australia's most hotly debated and urgent contemporary issues.

APT