Digital Programme: A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction

‘We feel that the ethos of this show is so much about being forward-looking as a cultural sector. This play and this process has challenged us as theatre artists to interrogate our role in cultural provision, asking what responsibility we have as part of a global community to think about our impact on the planet.

It has been a joy to partner with the Citizens of the World Choir on this project. A choir made up of people from 30 countries around the world, connecting displaced individuals, refugees, and vulnerable persons through music and song. From the beginning this collaboration has been characterised by friendship and compassion. We have deeply valued our time visiting the choir rehearsals, singing together, eating together, and creating together. We can’t wait to share this work with audiences.’

Holly Race Roughan and Iskandar إسكندر R. Sharazuddin (Headlong)

Ahead of their performances in A Play for Living in a Time of Extinction, Aref, Becky Dell and Meg Ella Brookes from the Citizens of the World Choir talked about the group’s genesis, evolution, and the particular importance of this collaboration with Headlong and Katie Mitchell

Take us back to the beginning…

Becky Dell, Musical Director (BD): In 2016 Meg and I and some other musicians went to the Calais Jungle. We wanted to use music to help impact the world for good, and went there to teach music to children in a school. We travelled over five times, each occasion loading up a couple of vans with food, tents and clothes. But we specifically wanted to do something to help people feel good and human: it’s not just about surviving, it’s about thriving as well. It was a life-changing experience, and we met some amazing people, including Tess [Berry-Hart] and Rachel [Hattingh], who we started the choir with. And we are still running it together. 

Tess invited us to Parliament where we met an amazing person called Lord Roger Roberts, who was doing a lot of work in the human rights sector and on refugee rights. He was second signatory to the Dubs Amendment, named after Lord Dubs who himself was a Kindertransport child rescued from Nazi Germany. Lord Dubs had put forward an amendment to the Human Rights Act, that we (the UK) would take 3,000 vulnerable refugee children from Syria. This of course was at a time of conflict in Syria. The government, to its shame, said no, we’re not going to do that. Lord Roberts had spent a sleepless night worrying about these children and, being a Welshman, he thought music might be the answer. He contacted us and said, ‘how about we do something for people already over here, and set up a choir?’ And so the Citizens of the World Choir was born.

Socrates said, ‘I’m not an Athenian, I’m not a Greek, but I am a citizen of the world’. All this happened around the time that then Prime Minister Theresa May said ‘if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.’ We do not agree with that. 

We had our first rehearsal in March 2017 and launched in Parliament on 20 June that year, on International Refugee Day. The choir started off as a five-month experiment but we somehow forgot to stop. It turned out to be the best thing all of us have ever done in our lives. And here we are, six years later, after an amazing set of experiences, from performing at Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Concert and at Westminster Central Hall for a UN celebration of the life of Kofi Annan, and appearances on BBC Radio, Sunday Morning Live, BBC World Service, Ronnie Scott’s to projects with the Royal Opera House and now with Headlong.

Meg Ella Brookes, Creative Director and Assistant Music Director (MEB): To recruit singers, we did a lot of shout-outs, we sent out flyers translated into as many languages as possible, we went to local refugee organisations, and reached out to any connections we had in the semi-local area, and to the arts sector. There were 30+ people at the first rehearsal. From the beginning we committed to having a 50/50 split of members: people who’ve had the refugee experience, are asylum seekers or identify that way, and their allies. Our allied members are from the local area and speak English as their first language.

BD: We set up the choir with three things in mind: firstly, to help with healing through the power of music; secondly to aid community integration - and at our very first meeting we decided the choir would be proudly non-auditioned, and proudly mixed community; and thirdly to change the narrative around refugees and migrants, to highlight the important contribution they make to our society.

We wanted to challenge the language being used at that time by people like Nigel Farage and David Cameron about refugees and migrants - our fellow human beings. People don’t want handouts: they are escaping war and persecution and climate change through no fault of their own. We would want to be treated with equal dignity and humanity if it happened to us. If you think about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, when we were in the Calais camp it was very much about survival, and we say our choir is the next step along the refugee journey. You’ve got here, you’re settled down, you’re looking for a community. That’s when we step in and offer help.

Q: How did the very first rehearsal in 2017 go?

BD: We have a music team of four who are all professional musicians; West End, TV and orchestra performers, who trained to a very high standard at music college. Artistic excellence is a huge part of what we do. And we have an admin team of four people who are human rights activists. For me, it’s this Venn diagram of politics, human rights and music. We are being politically active by existing. 

I remember saying at the first rehearsal that I don’t want audiences to look at us with pity and think, oh, it’s the ‘Refugee Choir’. I want to change the narrative, I want people to be impressed because we’re offering musical excellence. There are lots of refugee choirs. Ours has a very strong commitment to community integration by having a 50/50 system. We have 60 people in our choir representing 30 different nationalities, so none of us look like each other, but we are a family.

From the first rehearsal, we realised we had something special. We use the words 'synchronicity’ and ‘serendipity’ to refer to the Citizens of the World choir. It just falls into place.

Q: What does it mean to be a choir member?

Aref, Creative Assistant: In 2020, I was here in London and looking for a community. I saw one of the choir’s flyers when I was in a hostel in South London. I was looking for something offering integration like this so I texted Rachel, the choir’s member manager, and she responded that because of Covid-19, the sessions were taking place online. So my first session was online. Everyone was talking and I didn’t know what was going on - but it was really good!

BD: In fact, Aref was so amazing that about a year ago we began to employ him as a creative assistant. He now works as part of our team, and has just earned a scholarship to Ravensbourne for his photography and design work.

Aref: I come from a very strict family background - we don’t sing. But singing makes me happy; that’s the most important thing actually. I enjoy it. I initially joined for the community I wanted to have, but it has inspired my photography and other creative art too.

Q: What commitment is expected of choir members, when their living circumstances might be precarious?

BD: One of the biggest problems with living in London is the expense. We spend about £400 a week covering travel expenses and do a lot of grant writing and fundraising to enable that. We have to facilitate this opportunity for those who want to come. We serve snacks and offer data packages, try to get winter warmer grants to help people with clothing, food and energy bills, and sometimes we connect our members with legal advice. In Covid times we got secondhand devices to connect everyone, translated our online sessions into multiple languages and ran training courses to help people to be digitally connected. Sometimes people move on through no choice of their own, when the Home Office moves them to different parts of the country. We often write letters asking for them not to be moved from their community and that we are looking after them. It’s heartbreaking when that’s ignored.

Aref: Most of the refugee choir members travel over an hour and a half to come to choir.

MEB: Our singers are very committed. The people that come understand that a community only functions if you invest. And everybody invests. All we ask is that they show up, which can sometimes be very difficult to do.

Q: How did the choir become involved in this production, A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction?

BD: Initially we met with Headlong’s community producer, and I felt they were a great match with us. They used all the right language, and were thoughtful and inclusive. Lots of people want to work like this but don’t know the extent of what’s required behind the scenes. To us, Headlong are industry leaders.

MEB: The openness and inclusivity of the conversation with Headlong was and has been brilliant. There was no agenda beyond creating a great piece of theatre. This was a great example of entering into a conversation with people who may not have the same experience as you, but forging ahead to the same goal.

Q: What was the creative process for the choir?

BD: The brief was that we’d be singing a song towards the end of the play. We’d only have about 500w of electricity to work with, which meant we wouldn't be able to sing with a piano as we usually do. So we are singing to a very cool backing track that is made up of sampled sounds of bikes. The play will be touring to other locations and involving local choirs, but as we’re the first we’ve worked with the composer, Paul Clark, for two months to develop the piece of music. We have all really enjoyed that process.

It will be the first time the choir has performed without me conducting as I will be singing. So it’s been really important in rehearsals to make sure the singers become really secure with the score.

Q: How does the story of the play resonate with your own mission?

BD: Hugely. There are a vast amount of displaced people in the world because of climate change. We talk a lot about war and persecution, and less about climate change. And some people are displaced within their own home country because of climate change. The UN say we will see that number soar in the coming decades.

We are also pro-environment in the COTW office. We aim for carbon neutrality, and we plant 40 trees every month; and we do much more, like green audits and using electric vehicles.

MEB: Our primary cause is not climate change but it is hugely significant to our choir members. And it’s wonderful to see artistic organisations being openly passionate about it, and how they’re moving their grain of sand by being innovative and committed to those ethics. This production is a phenomenal example of walking the talk, and it will be interesting to see how the concept develops.

Q: What’s next?

MEB: We have lots of big ideas, that’s what we do. The sky is the limit, but we are talking about ways to extend what we’ve learned and share source material that will help communities to set up their own branch of COTW choirs so that we can reach more people.

BD: We are hugely ambitious and I’d like us to be known internationally. The world feels fractured at points, but I don’t think it is. Bad news exists when people profit off selling it. But we’re showing how peace, community, love and lifting each other up can really help.

Lydia West
Naomi
Lydia West is a BAFTA-nominated British actress who was named as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2021 and is known for her work on projects such as It’s a Sin. Lydia West has recently been announced to appear alongside Nicola Coughlan in Big Mood, a Channel 4 comedy which follows the friendship of Maggie (Coughlan) and Eddie (West). In 2023, she will appear in the feature film Love Again in a cast including Sam Heughan, Russell Tovey, Celia Imrie, Priyanka Chopra and Celine Dion, which is set to release on 12 May; and she will appear in the eight-part TV series, Gray.

Miranda Rose Hall
Writer 
Miranda Rose Hall is an American playwright and screenwriter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her plays include A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (finalist for the 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Plot Points in Our Sexual Development (finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award in Drama); The Kind Ones and Menstruation: A Period Piece. She is writing commissioned works for Yale Repertory Theater, Playwrights Horizons Soundstage, and LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater as a Berwin Lee New York London Commissioned Playwright. In 2020, she was honoured with a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. She has written for television on Showtime and ABC, and is a founding member of LubDub Theatre Company.

Katie Mitchell 
Director 
Katie Mitchell is an award-winning theatre and opera director with a career spanning 30 years and over 100 productions, in the UK and internationally. Her work has been staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre and the Royal Court and she has been an Associate Director at all three. She has been a resident director at the Schaubühne (Berlin), the Deutsches Schauspielhaus (Hamburg) and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. She has won numerous awards for her directing and an OBE for services to theatre. She is well known for her work on climate change and her advocacy for women and young people.

Francesca Hsieh
Francesca Hsieh is an Asian-American theatre director based in London. She has her MA in Theatre Directing from Royal Holloway, University of London and a BFA in Musical Theatre Performance from the University of Utah. Previous credits include Tosca (director observer to Georg Zlabinger, English National Opera), Shakespearean Support Group (director, Standby for Places podcast), Cocaine Triptych (director, Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival – winner of outstanding live production), and Mary Stuart (assistant director to Shelley Butler, Pioneer Theatre Company). She is on the Higher Education faculty at Shakespeare’s Globe and as an activist her work has been featured in Classical Singer Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, and The Salt Lake Tribune.

Moi Tran
Designer 
Moi Tran is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and researcher with a background in Fine Art and Design for live performance. Recent designs include: The Tempest: Playing Shakespeare and Henry V (Headlong) at Shakespeare’s Globe; Baghdaddy and Peaky Blinders for Rambert; Rare Earth Mettle and White Pearl at the Royal Court; Chasing Hares for Theatre Uncut at the Young Vic; Corrina Corrina for Headlong/ Liverpool Playhouse; Raya and Deluge at Hampstead; Dear Elizabeth and The Letters Project at the Gate; In the Blood at the Donmar; Chiaroscuro at the Bush; Human Wall for the V&A; Beats’n’Shine for MUDAM; Summer Rolls at the Park Theatre; The Imperfect Pearl for the Corn Exchange, Newbury/St George’s, Bristol/King’s Place/onUK tour; and Falstaff for Opera Berbiguieres, France. Recent art includes: Reshaping the Collectible for TATE Modern UK; a solo exhibition Civic Sound Archive’ for PEER UK; Sign Chorus VN for the National Archives UK; The Circuit and Shy God A Chorus for SPILL Festival; Sonic Signalling in Reverse for AIO/GIBCA Gothenburg; SHY GOD Chapter Một for Chisenhale Dance UK; solo exhibition, I love a broad margin to my life for Yeo Workshops Singapore; The Bolero Effect in Hanoi/British Council; Civic Voice Archive for the National Archives/UEL UK; The Circuit for Prague Quadrennial; and Temporality in a Cut at the Display Gallery. Moi Tran is a founder of East Asian Ticket Club, an engagement platform for the East Asian community and currently is Artist in Residence with Headlong.

Bethany Gupwell 
Lighting Designer 
Work in theatre includes: A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction at the Barbican; La Voix Humaine at Opéra national du Rhin; Little Scratch (also New Diorama) and Wolf Cub at Hampstead Theatre; War and Culture and Keep Watching at New Diorama; Here, the Woods at Southwark Playhouse; Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Moor and When Darkness Falls at the Park Theatre and on UK tour); Brown Girls Do It Too (also on UK tour), Fitter and Wonder Winterland at Soho Theatre; Frantic Assembly’s Ignition at Brixton House; Talking About a Revolution on UK tour; A-Typical Rainbow at Turbine Theatre; The Pirate, the Princess and the Platypus at Polka Theatre; We Started to Sing at the Arcola; Rice and Little Baby Jesus at the Orange Tree Theatre; You Heard Me at ARC Stockton and on tour; Interruptions at Jackson’s Lane; Albatross at The Playground); Talking Heads at Watford Palace; Tipping the Velvet at Mountview; The Last Harvest for the National Youth Theatre; Trade on UK tour; Queen of the Mist at Charing Cross Theatre; Zorba at Eve Lyons Studio Theatre; Chess at the Electric Theatre; I’d Rather Go Blind for Omnibus; Dracula at Leicester Curve; and Sweet Like Chocolate Boy at Brockley Jack;

Paul Clark
Composer 
Paul Clark is co-artistic director of performance company Clod Ensemble and has written original scores for all the company’s productions to date – ranging from totally acoustic works, to multi speaker installations including Silver Swan at Tate Modern; Under Glass at Sadler's Wells; and On the High Road at South Bank Centre. He has written dozens of scores for the stage in the UK and internationally including many productions with Katie Mitchell including Waves at the National Theatre and Wunschkonzert for the Köln Schauspielhaus, and with Gare St Lazare with whom he created Here All Night at the Lincoln Center and The Abbey, Dublin. He has written music for and with a hugely diverse range of musicians from Manchester Camerata, Opera North and Renee Fleming to Dangermouse and Mark E Smith (The Fall). Paul Clark is an advocate for the access of young people to music and leads Clod Ensemble’s  project for music creators, Ear Opener.

Munotida Chinyanga 
Sound Designer 
Munotida Chinyanga is an Anti-Disciplinary Practitioner and Experience Designer creating work primarily through direction and sound. She facilitates Europe-wide connections between countries, disciplines and artists, investigating how theatre/performance and sonic art can facilitate the bringing together of a community, working on ways to mediate dialogue that is cross-cultural, creating both sonic and performative experiences for audiences. She has worked for venues and organisations including; Omnibus Theatre, the Young Vic, the Gate, Royal Exchange Manchester, Clean Break and taught on Rose Bruford’s European Theatre Arts course. She was assistant director to Kwame Kwei-Armah (Artistic Director of the Young Vic) on Tree, which premiered at the Manchester International Festival. International work includes Creative Europe residences in Serbia, France and Malta. She has directed productions and delivered masterclasses at Teatro India, The National Theatre of Rome and Teatro di Akrai, The National Institute of Ancient Drama, Sicily and YIYUAN TANG Museum in China supported by UKNA. Munotida Chinyanga was selected as the honorary International Artist for Parma Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2021 supported by BJCEM and Creative Europe. She is also a visiting lecturer at Middlesex University.

Iskandar إسكندر R. Sharazuddin
Movement Director
Iskandar إسكندر R. Sharazuddin is a British-Bruneian theatre and movement artist as well as a dance-dramaturg. He is an Associate at Headlong Theatre and Joint Artistic Director of Ellandar Productions, a British East and Southeast Asian (BESEA) led theatre company focused on new writing and physical theatre. Selected work in theatre as Movement Director include: Worth at the Arcola Theatre/Storyhouse; Blackout Songs at Hampstead; harmony. 天人合一 at The Pleasance and Ensemble Festival 2022; The Climbers (as associate) at Theatre by the Lake; Così fan tutte and Satyagraha (also Puppetry Director) for ENO and Improbable; Gnomus for the BBC Proms; and How To Train Your Dragon (also as Dance Captain and Resident Director) for Dreamworks SKG/Global Creatures. As a Dance-Dramaturg he conceived and developed (un)written • (un)heard for the Fringe World Festival Western Australia (International Dance & Physical Theatre Award). His physical theatre play, Post-Mortem, which he also performed, was presented at Assembly Festival Edinburgh 2019 and toured internationally as part of The Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights Fringe World Festival, Western Australia and Holden Street Theatres, Adelaide Fringe 2020.

Citizens of the World Choir
Citizens of the World Choir is a musical family that celebrates the artistry, heritage and humanity of people seeking sanctuary, and their allies. We advocate for understanding, dignity and kindness through the transformative impact of music and song.
citizensoftheworldchoir.org

Rachel Jones
Sign Language Interpreter
My name is Rachel Jones and I am a registered sign language interpreter, with experience across a wide range of different domains. I specialise in: theatre interpreting (Theatre performances, musicals, and theatre conference's settings, such as Church services, wedding, funeral, and musical concerts), as well as in Education (Colleges and Universities). My Previous theatre credits include: Sign performance (Brixton House Theatre, Pathways Writers Showcase, Christmas Production of Alice In Wonderland at Brixton house, Young Associates at Sadlers Wells, and Sundown Kiki at the Young Vic). I am a proud CoDA ( Child of Deaf Adults) and truly believe representation is important in our community. 

The original production of A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction directed by Katie Mitchell was created at the  Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne as part of the project Sustainable Theatre?, conceived by Katie Mitchell, Jérôme Bel and  Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, with the collaboration of the Competence Centre in Sustainability of the University of Lausanne, co-produced by STAGES - Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green Environmental Shift (NTGent - Théâtre de Liège - National Theatre of Croatia in Zagreb - MC93, Maison de la culture de Seine-Saint-Denis - Trafo House of Contemporary Arts - Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Teatro d'Europa - Lithuanian National Drama Theatre - Teatro Nacional D. Maria II - Maribor Slovene National Theatre - The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Dramaten, Stockholm - National Theater & Concert Hall, Taipei) and co-funded by the European Union. Sustainable Theatre? includes two shows and a workshop touring in the form of scripts recreated locally.

A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction
A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction was commissioned and developed by LubDub Theatre Company, Caitlin Nasema Cassidy, and Geoff Kanick, Co-Artistic Directors, Robert Duffley, Dramaturg. 

The production was developed, in part, with assistance from the Orchard Project (www.orchardproject.com), Ari Edelson Artistic Director

Written By Miranda Rose Hall
Directed by Katie Mitchell
Co-produced by Headlong and the Barbican 

On tour

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, from 10 May 2023
Directed by Nyasha Gudo

Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot, from 16 May 2023
Directed by Nathan Powell

New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, from 19 June 2023
Directed by Ellie Taylor 

Theatre Royal Plymouth, from 28 June 2023
Directed by Kay Michael 

York Theatre Royal, from 27 September 2023
Directed by Mingyu Lin