Life in exile

OneWorld UK

By Daniel Nelson

First, find 100 Zimbabwean exiles. Not difficult, when so many have fled their country and fought against the British governments determination to stem the number of people seeking refuge here.

Next, talk to them about their lives their reactions to Britain, Britons, the British legal system, the weather.

Third, mix, improvise and stage it. The result is Qabuka: Adventures in Exile, and its superb.

Director Ben Evans and the Full Frontal Theatre company including Zimbabwean Patson Muzuwa have created an entertaining, moving and at times very funny piece of work that will strike a chord with people everywhere who have left their homeland in fear or desperation sometimes to find only more fear and desperation.

In some cases, they find refuge enough to allow them to overcome their traumas and rebuild their lives: Qabuka ends with a woman on one corner of the Oval House Theatre stage taking an overdose with a deluge of pills and another, on the opposite corner, enjoying the wonderment of her first English snowfall - white pills and white flakes, defeat and hope.

Political theatre can be gawky: the concept puts off the many who just want entertainment and fails to attract the few who cant see the point of spending time watching people acting out an issue they know about. Dont miss Qabuka for either reason: it delivers emotional truth and its fun.

Ben Evans says the production was a reaction against the increasing tendency in the media to treat those in exile as numbers and statistics over which to be argued.

Nobody doubts that immigration and asylum is a complex and difficult area of public policy, but not only should we not forget the people and stories behind the statistics, neither should we pretend that exile is a comfortable place.

* Qabuka, Oval House Theatre, until 15 July