Play spotlights Refugee experience

RURAL Australians for Refugees Bendigo are encouraging people to develop a deeper understanding of refugee and asylum seeker experiences through a play set to hit The Capital’s stage next month.

At the centre of Samah Sabawi’s THEM is a family contemplating if they should escape their war-torn home country in the Middle East, with the playwright drawing on the lived experiences of people in similar situations.

The play is a co-production between Lara Week, La Mama, and Critical Stages Touring.

Convenor with RAR Bendigo, Christine Cummins, said learning more about refugees and asylum seekers through different media was “incredibly important”.

“It’s giving an opportunity to really connect with the human story of tragedy that can unfold just depending on where you were born and by circumstance,” she said.

“Some people are readers, some people are more visual and going to a play can give you the opportunity to be really immersed into an intimate story and to really step into that environment and find yourself in there with a deeper understanding of the issues.

“Getting people to come along and either read books or go to plays or watch films is trying to tap into any avenue to increase the audience and to raise awareness of the real fundamental issues of seeking asylum and the desperation that people are in when they have to make that incredibly hard choice.”

For more info and to book visit bit.ly/3wNE1j6.

RAR Bendigo is one of six of the organisation’s groups in the central Victorian region, advocating for refugees and asylum seekers and providing them with practical support.