To mark London Refugee Week, join us at the Yorkton Workshops for Zhvan’a Theatre’s unique performance of ‘Didi and Gogo are Waiting’. The production  uses the idea of a pair of refugees starting to perform the famous Samuel Beckett’s  play ‘Waiting for Godot’, but then allowing their own experiences to take over, perhaps allowing them to discover who Godot really is! With one member of the cast suddenly sent to the Bibby Stockholm, the rehearsal process has had its struggles, but a combination of rehearsing by phone, plus a couple of trips to Dorset, they  have kept things moving  to present to you their riveting production.

About Zhvan Theatre and the play:

In February 2022, Chris Walters began teaching a weekly Drama class for asylum-seekers living at the Holiday Inn in Wembley, as well as two neighbouring hotels.  From this, a theatre company was formed, called Zhvan Theatre Company (zhvan is a Kurdish word, meaning beautiful.) Since then, they have presented three productions: a low-key performance in the hotel of two folk tales;  ‘No Waiting’, a play combining comic sketches about the experience of waiting, alongside scenes which described the life of the asylum-seeker. This production was  presented at the Beck Theatre in Hayes, as well as Kensal Rise library. They also performed ‘Journeys’, a play about the different experiences of three different people seeking asylum in England, based on their own experiences, at the Migrant Connections festival in Streatham.

The Drama classes at the Holiday Inn always depended upon who would turn up.  Sometimes, there was a mere handful, sometimes twenty or more.  Sometimes there would be people who were fluent in English, sometimes there were people with none, most often it was a mixture of the two. It was impossible to know in advance who would be there, so it did require a certain nimbleness.

Gradually, however, a core group became regulars, and at least it was possible to explore ideas for theatre.  By the time of ‘No Waiting’ in 2023, Zhvn Theatre  had a solid core of about a dozen performers.  But the life of the asylum-seeker is random and chaotic, and shortly after that various members left to be relocated, to begin college courses, to get on with their lives which was always the hope and aspiration.

But with numbers low, Walters started to look at scenes from ‘Waiting For Godot’, a play that seemed particularly relevant to the experience of the asylum-seeker: waiting from day to day, each one much the same as the one before, with no clear idea as to when it might end, just a vague hope.

A production of the whole play would never be viable. Apart from anything else, the actors had English as a second language, so the task had to be made manageable.  But they also started to see other possibilities, to have the performers comment on the action, to introduce aspects of physical theatre. Then they can possibly unlock the mystery of who Godot actually was.

This event is also made possible with the support of Care4Calais where Chris Walters also volunteers.

Image Credit: Zhvan Theatre