Asylum: World premiere from Brave New Word

ASYLUM: Brave New Word Theatre Company by Ruth
Fingret

Following their acclaimed production of Big Crow in February this year, Asylum is a contemporary work that deals with the human side of our present immigration process. The story explores how we can fall into considering refugees as “other”, despite the fact that we are all seeking asylum from varying problems in our own lives. It is a timely and powerful story of a family torn apart by hypocrisy their struggle to connect with each other while they are all hiding from the uglier elements of themselves.

The play centres around Craig, an unstable immigration officer, whose wife left years ago because of their nightmare child, Jason. Left to do daily battle with Jason’s tendency for petty crime, Craig has retreated into a rigid sense of responsibility and morality that is unmoved by pleas from either his family or desperate applicants.

This begins to be tested when Craig meets Hajir, a Lebanese man applying for a protection visa to remain in Australia on the same day his ex-wife returns and Jason is arrested. Now beset on all sides, Craig is forced to confront the chasm between who he is to himself, to his family and to those who depend on him for their safety. Is
he willing to violate his morality and lie in the name of a greater good? And if so, for whom?

Presented in-the-round, in an intimate found space in Paddington, this production is immediate, voyeuristic, intense and deeply personal. Brave New Word is thrilled to share this story with audiences in such a fitting and intimate way.

Directed by Richard Hilliar,  this is a never before staged work has gone though an in-company script development process with the cast (Dave Woodland, Josh McElroy, Katherine Shearer, Eli Saad, Hannah Raven).

Playing Comber Street Studios from the 15th till 25th of November
2017.

For more information about ASYLUM … http://bnwtheatre.com.au/