Britain colonised 25% of the Earth’s land surface, subjugated 500 million people and justified the mass violence as a civilising mission. In the UK, migrants, refugees and those seeking asylum are scapegoated, detained without charge, interrogated, forced into destitution, deported without warning, suffocated, beaten and pushed to suicide by the British state’s anti-immigration and anti-asylum policies.

British-Romanian collective BÉZNĂ Theatre present a reading of their latest new play, ILLEGALISED, a journey through the Home Office’s human rights abuses against ‘the other’ that exposes the immigration-industrial complex and the profit made from the illegalisation of human beings.

Inspired and informed by interviews with migrants, refugees and those seeking asylum, ILLEGALISED is the first part of a protest cycle denouncing Britain’s dehumanising of people for power and profit from colonial times to today.

ILLEGALISED is protest-theatre calling for solidarity.

Supported by Arts Council England, Northern Stage, Applecart Arts, Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network, Bookmarks, Work Rights Centre, and Unity Theatre Trust.

Age restriction: 16+

Ab0ut the artist

BÉZNĂ Theatre is an award-winning, critically acclaimed British-Romanian interventionist theatre collective formed by theatre directors, playwrights and activists Sînziana Koenig and Nico Vaccari, united by the need to make bold political theatre that investigates societal inequalities and confronts institutionalised and normalised violences. All our productions are made in consultation with activists and experts and accompanied by acts of interventionist-activism. We consider theatre a powerful platform for provoking grassroots activism, promoting empathy and empowering audiences to demand change.