Refugee Week Celebration

Featuring  Zhvan Theatre and Care4Calais

Our  2023 programme includes a talk by Matilda Velevitch, from Care4Calais. Also Zhvan Theatre will be performing a comic piece (30 mins),  No Waiting,  directed by Chris Walters. The performers are Asylum Seekers. Like last year’s powerful event, there will be audience discussion and a chance to mingle. Refreshments provided by Selfridges. 

In the audience we are delighted to be welcoming the Mayor, Orleen Hylton,  and Leader of Brent Council, Mohammed Butt, plus Food Justice Champion, Ryan Hack, and Leader of the LibDems, Anton Georgiou.

No Waiting evokes the Kafkaesque nightmare experienced by so many asylum-seekers in the UK. Lives lived in limbo, not allowed to work, very little money, having simply to endure, while attempting to navigate a confusing and confused system that grinds at glacial speed.

No Waiting juxtaposes comic scenes about waiting and its frustrations, with duologues that reflect asylum seekers’ encounters with bureaucracy.

Created and directed by Chris Walters, who founded Zhvan Theatre with asylum seekers in 2022. ‘Zhvan’ means ‘happy place’ in Farsi.

The words ‘Refugee’ and  ‘Migrant’ have become a negative concept in the media.  Yet we in Brent know the positive impact of migration and the value of those who participate and engage in the community. For instance:

1.  In The Mix at the Granville Centre – a community kitchen where Asylum Seekers cook and serve a weekly meal to up to 100 local South Kilburn Residents.
2. Six  Asylum Seekers took part in the Blenheim Triathlon to raise money for In The Mix.
3. A number of  Wembley Asylum Seekers (several of whom are in the theatre group) volunteer regularly at SUFRA Food Bank, The Felix Project and Mapesbury Mutual Aid.  One teaches English at the Indian Community Centre.