An Evening with an Immigrant Tickets
A repertoire of twelve one-person plays during September and October, using the Bridge’s flexible auditorium to provide 250 socially distanced seats. If the season is delayed, automatic refunds will be given for cancelled performances.
Recommended By
In the wake of the Windrush and other immigration scandals, Inua Ellams autobiographical tale of coming to the UK from Nigeria aged 12 after the family feared for their lives, raises pertinent questions around what we mean by home and the UK government extends a welcome. Or rather doesn’t. You will already know Ellams’ work from The Barbershop Chronicles and Three Sisters, both seen at the NT, and this show, which I imagine will have developed since I first saw it back in 2017 when Ellams’ immigration status was still uncertain, provides a sneaky look at the making of an artist and how poetry can save your life.
About An Evening with an Immigrant
Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered by many to be Boko Haram territory, award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England in 1996 aged 12, moved to Ireland for three years, before returning to London and starting work as a writer and graphic designer. Part of this story was documented in his autobiographical Fringe First Award-winning play The 14th Tale, but much of it is untold. Littered with poems, stories and anecdotes, Inua tells his ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, experiencing prejudice and friendship in Dublin, performing solo at the National Theatre, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.