Good Chance bring their Calais Jungle theatre to London
© Sarah Lee
As part of the Southbank Centre's annual Festival of Love, Good Chance, the theatre company behind the pop-up performance space in the refugee camp in Calais will host a programme of performances and events, uniting artists from across Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Good Chance will bring Encampment, a series of free theatre, art, music, discussions and workshops with guests from around the world to London over nine days from 30 July. The company will be transporting their temporary dome which provided people with a safe space in Calais to the South Bank.
The programme, which will help to raise awareness of the migrant crisis, will include highlights such as a new devised work created by Good Chance, a production from Lebanese company Zoukak entitled The Last Tablet about the value of life and living under the shadow of death, and an exhibition of art created by residents of the Calais camp.
War Horse author Michael Morpurgo will perform a guest reading at an Afghan kite-making workshop, there will be new work from South London-based migrant and refugee-led theatre company, The Paper Project. Nassim Soleimanpour's nomadic play White Rabbit Red Rabbit – which has no rehearsals, no director, just a script waiting in a sealed envelope on stage – will be performed.
Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, artistic directors and co-founders of Good Chance, said: "We worked with the residents of the Jungle camp in Calais to bring a theatre to life every day for six months… We're proud to be pitching the Good Chance Dome at Southbank Centre this summer, and bringing with it the idea that we're so much better, bigger and braver when we come together and listen.
"Together with the incredible artists who will be building Encampment with us, we want to offer everyone the chance to meet, mix, talk and think about what we need to do. To have fun together and become excited, rather than scared, about what lies ahead. We have an opportunity here, a good chance, to develop a big new idea of who we are. And we want to seize this moment. Join us!"
To raise funds for Good Chance, a fundraising gala entitled A Night of Hope will be hosted by Stephen Daldry and Quintessentially Foundation on 4 July.
Good Chance Encampment will run at the Southbank Centre as part of the Festival of Love from 30 July to 7 August.
