Actors Touring Company reveals casting for Bodies of Water

Actors Touring Company (ATC) has announced casting for its new show Bodies of Water, which premieres at the upcoming Greenwich + Docklands International Festival 2024 (GDIF).

The site-specific production will be staged at the Ahoy! Centre in Deptford, Greenwich, and explores “the deeply moving stories of people travelling across land and water to seek refuge”.

Laila Alj will perform in the role of narrator alongside a group of 30 local people who have had first-hand experience of the asylum system. Facilitated by Francesca Beard, their testimonies have been turned into “poetic vignettes, creating an evocative and authentic dimension to this piece of community theatre in its truest sense”.

In addition, the show will also feature a community choir led by Stratford East Singers’ choir leader Byron Gold, and accompaniment by celebrated oud player, Rihab Azar.

Bodies of Water takes place from 27 to 31 August, performing a total of seven times across five days. This show responds to Warsan Shire’s poem HOME, and is conceived by ATC’s artistic director Matthew Xia.

“Warsan Shire’s visceral poem has become a clarion for people seeking refuge,” said Xia. “Bodies of Water invites those who have – for too long – been spoken about, spoken over, silenced and used as culture war fodder to respond in their own words. This new show places ownership of this experience back with those who have lived it, an artistic act of resistance, a public record which challenges and combats the dominant narrative. Let’s listen to the humans not the headlines.”

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