SUPPLIANTS OF SYRIA Comes to Hoxton Hall in March

Border Crossings will return to the stage this spring with SUPPLIANTS OF SYRIA, a dynamic  multimedia performance, in which Syrian women on screen interact with live performers. The  company’s latest work presents an urgent and topical look at displacement, created in  collaboration with the refugees themselves. Audiences will not only hear these important  testimonies: they will also have the opportunity to talk through their significance in a live debate  at the centre of the performance. Performances run Tuesday 3rd – Sunday 8th March 2026.

Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote Suppliants (meaning ‘Asylum Seekers’) in 463 BC. It's a story  of women fleeing their home in search of safety. In 2023, Border Crossings travelled to Turkey  to develop a contemporary version of this ancient piece in dialogue with a group of Syrian  women, who shared their own stories, and performed the Choruses from the original play. 

SUPPLIANTS OF SYRIA focuses on the stark contrast between the popular perception of refugees  and the harsh realities they face in everyday life. The show combines Aeschylus' 2,500-year-old  play with these modern-day filmed testimonies presented in a live on-stage dialogue with 

European actors while the venue’s walls will be adorned with artworks by local refugees. The  production seeks to reshape how we understand discussions in the news around the ‘refugee  crisis’ by foregrounding the voices of women who continue to seek safety and dignity. 

SUPPLIANTS OF SYRIA use the Greek model of Theatre as Democracy to incite a live debate  about admitting and accommodating refugees. All performances will be preceded by a short talk  by a refugee or NGO worker and be followed by music and dance from local refugees. Border  Crossings will also host a pre-show dinner so that refugees and young people can engage  directly with civic dignitaries, police, health and social workers, journalists and politicians. 

Artistic Director Michael Walling comments We first worked in Adana in 2018, as part of an EU funded project called THE PROMISED LAND, which was in turn a response to a policy  consultation on the role of culture in the so-called “refugee crisis”. Already the city had grown  massively as people rushed north to escape the violence in Syria, and the EU-Turkey deal  prevented them from going any further. 

Seven years later, and words like “asylum seeker”, “refugee” and “migrant” have become terms  of abuse and hatred. There is a crisis - but it’s to do with the reception of refugees, not the  people themselves. In our public debates, the one voice that is never heard is that of the refugee.  So SUPPLIANTS OF SYRIA is an attempt to set that straight, and to question our own role as a  host society. It reconsiders our democracy, our theatre, and our humanity.