Dirty truth: personal narrative, victimhood and participatory theatre work with people seeking asylum

Abstract

An emphasis on personal narratives characterises a great deal of participatory theatre practice with refugee groups. It is important to understand how these narratives are conditioned by bureaucratic performance if practitioners are to avoid re-enactments of victimhood in participatory projects. Bureaucratic performance concerns the legal and juridical structures that exist beyond the theatre within which asylum seekers’ stories are created. These structures require narratives of persecution if the asylum seeker is to be successful in his or her claim for asylum, and such narratives often make their way into participatory work. By examining three scenes from the play A Letter from Home, it is possible to identify different approaches to the presentation of personal narrative in performance. The most positive of these approaches served to undermine the figure of the refugee as a victim, at the same time as it productively destabilised some of the boundaries between participant and facilitator.