ILLEGALISED Embarks on a UK Tour

ILLEGALISED is a world premiere of a new multi-lingual political text exposing the dehumanising effects of the British State's anti-immigration policies on migrants & those seeking asylum in the UK. ILLEGALISED ruthlessly investigates the vast profit made by the Home Office and its corporate partners from the illegalisation of human beings & asks what we as a people can do to stop it.

ILLEGALISED is a direct response to research & development that took place in Autumn 2018 in London, Bedford, Daventry and Sheffield. It investigated 'othering', structural racism in the UK and Britain's violent colonial past. The text for ILLEGALISED is a response to the material gathered while interviewing over 30 migrants, refugees and those seeking asylum as well as activists and academics in the field of racism, state violence and colonialism. Participants came from 4 continents, 20 countries and all economic backgrounds. Participants have been kept anonymous by their own request. Two are now consultants on the final production.

ILLEGALISED is the first in BÉZN?'s cycle of multi-lingual plays denouncing Britain's dehumanising of people for power & profit from colonial times to today.

Written & Directed by: Sînziana Koenig & Nico Vaccari
Producer: Claire Gilbert
Cast: Lizzie Clarke, Oana Pu?catu, Ahmad Sakhi, Theo St Claire
Associate Artists: Participant A & Participant U
Design: Jacob Lucy
Lighting Design: Stacey Sandford
Sound Design: Dan Balfour

The company includes two Romanian nationals & a refugee from Afghanistan.

Tues 30 April - Thurs 2 May Camden People's Theatre
UK Tour 5 May - 25 May
Press Night: Tuesday 30 April 9pm

Experts: Malia Bouattia, journalist and activist, previous president of NUS & Dr. Monish Bhatia, activist and lecturer in criminology at Birkbeck

Also consulted: Dr. Umut Erel, Dr. Freddie Laker, Alexandra Bulat, Dr. Olivia Vicol, Jenny Barrett and Participant H

BÉZN? Theatre is an award-winning British-Romanian theatre collective formed in 2013 by Sînziana Koenig & Nico Vaccari who were brought together by the need to make a political theatre that investigates societal inequalities and that confronts institutional and normalised violences. BÉZN? is committed to interventionist activism through theatre in artistic and educational environments and within communities throughout Romania and the UK.

Previous awards:

CRIME, 2014 - Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Best Performance and Best Actor at the

International Theatre Festival Suceava, Romania. Critic Iulia Popovici's top pick for Romania's best productions of 2014 in the newspaper Adev?rul.