FUTURE YOUNG PEOPLE'S THEATRE PRODUCTIONS

We will be re-touring our successful production of Mud City
to Years 5 & 6, in the Autumn 2008

Mud City Tour 2007
In collaboration with
Refugee Awareness Group
for Greenwich Refugee Week 2007

Toured to Years 5 & 6
11th June - 6th July 2007

Mud City is a new piece of participatory theatre for Years 5 and 6 that runs parallel to the broader celebratory Refugee Week programme, raising awareness of the plight of refugees, especially those in large refugee camps. Mud City is one of an extraordinary trilogy of books by award-winning Canadian author Deborah Ellis that look at the stories of young people living in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“I wanted to collect stories of women who had survived the decades of war leading up to and including the Taliban, which is why I went over to the Afghan border with Pakistan to interview women and kids. Those interviews are published in an adult book called Women of the Afghan War. Some of the things I heard from kids formed the basis for the Breadwinner novels.”

Interview with Deborah Ellis by Marjorie Coughlan
www.papertigers.org

Mud City follows the fortunes of Afghan refugee Shauzia, as she copes with the difficulties of the Taliban regime, war in her country, a large refugee camp and life on the streets of Peshawar, Pakistan, before finally arriving as an asylum seeker in the UK. 

Our production is a team of actors, musicians and visual artists presenting parts of Shauzia’s story from Mud City in a day-long residency in primary schools.  The audience of 9 and 10 year olds become active participants in this incredible journey, using drama, descriptive writing, music, screen-printing and shadow puppetry to explore how they might resolve the dilemmas faced by children like Shauzia.

The aim of Mud City is to make children in the UK more understanding of the context of refugees who arrive in this country; or to appreciate what it must be like to live in a refugee camp in the developing world and how children survive around the world living on rubbish dumps. They explore issues such as refuge and asylum, the global picture, children’s rights, and how we welcome new people from different places in the world into our communities.

In June 2007, Mud City was performed in primary schools in Greenwich, Lewisham, Bexley, Bromley and Newham between 11th June and 6th July , 2007.  the project was developed following a week-long residency at Morden Mount Primary School.

A special public performance was also presented at the Empower All Festival for Greenwich Refugee Week on Saturday June 23 at Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.

Mud City was produced with financial assistance from

Source Novels:
The Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey & Mud City by Deborah Ellis, Oxford University Press 2003

Report:
End Child Exploitation: Child Labour Today by Unicef with contributions from Mike Dottridge & Liz Stuart

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