Art has always been a way for people to question the world and raise social awareness. For 12 nights this February, the Apocalypse Theatre Company will be doing just that with its new project,Asylum. Playwrights across Australia have created short works that discuss and challenge one of the largest political issues in the country at the present time. We chatted to artistic director Dino Dimitriadis about the project and what it hopes to achieve.
Apart from dealing with such an important subject as the matter of asylum-seeking, Asylum is also noteworthy as an example of ‘quick response theatre’, as Dimitriadis explains. “It’s about rushing the content to the stage. It means that the art itself isn’t necessarily polished and fully formed, but that it’s about the ideas and what the work is trying to engage with. So what you have is the lead time for a production condensed into a much smaller window of time.”
Dimitriadis continues, “We put out the call in early December and writers had about 20 days to submit a concept. We then took five days to select the works and then the playwrights had until the 20th of January to deliver scripts. [From] this point we hit the stage in two weeks.”
The concept is quite a beautiful one from a creative standpoint – surely with so little time to perfect the works, you’re bound to get a rawness of emotion and something very real.
“I think you’re completely spot on,” says Dimitriadis. “That’s what excites me about this format. Because of the lead time, because it’s a collection of pieces on each night and because it’s framed as a discussion, it allowed playwrights to shoot from the gut more boldly. They have to go on their convictions and they have the chance to pursue their concept wholeheartedly.”
Although the topic of asylum seekers is frequently in the news and therefore accessible, this wasn’t the only inspiration behind choosing it for this project.“It’s about our responsibility as artists. It’s an absolute rare privilege to have access to any stage to say anything on and this is an issue that is extremely political. It’s not only topical, but the pressure to find a solution seems to be escalating. You only have to look at the absolute horrors of what’s happening at the moment with the hunger strikes,” says Dimitriadis. “I really believe that artists can lead these kinds of conversations and theatre in its great tradition provides a wonderful forum for it.”
In addition to involving established playwrights such as Hilary Bell, Mary Rachel Brown, Noelle Janaczewska and Ross Mueller, Asylum will also be featuring works by emerging artists. More important, however, is the inclusion of work from former and current asylum seekers. “We’re very lucky! That came about, I don’t know, through the universe,” Dimitriadis laughs.
Another of the most significant aspects of the Asylum project is that the artists involved have waived their fees. All proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne.
“As a theatremaker my policy is always to pay artists, because it’s work,” says Dimitriadis. “But with this project I have asked everyone to waive their fees. That’s because I feel that with a project like this it’s important to tell these stories but it’s also an opportunity to raise money for the people doing the work on the frontlines. These centres work daily for the rights of asylum seekers.”
Asylumis playing atOld 505 Theatre fromTuesday February 3 until Sunday February 15, program and tickets online.
