A man and his wife live in the suburbs of a city full of trash, a Beckettian wasteland in which everything they own is constructed from old pieces of garbage. When they hear "migrants from the war" are arriving in town the couple decide to build a barbed wire border around their property. But their encounter with two migrant women heading to the sea has a surprising outcome. And a hostile situation becomes an opportunity for everyone involved to rethink their position, in a game of power and alliances resulting in an unpredictable new scenario where victims and oppressors seem to swap roles. Funny, surreal and poetic, The Sea is my Nation is about exile and love, internal displacement and physical loss, visible borders and invisible fault lines.

Wednesday 6 February 2019: 1:30pm
Length: 70 mins
Translator: Ruth Valentine
Cast: Daiva Dominyka, Luiana Bonfim, Lara Parmiani, Stelios Trakas
Director: Becka McFadden

The performance will be followed after a short break by Q&A and discussion led by Dr Roxane Paire (France).

Hala Moughanie was born in Lebanon but migrated to France aged ten. In 2003 she decided to go back to her native country where she now works as a playwright, journalist and teacher. Hala is interested in stories exploring the memory of war in a country still very much marked by the stigmata of past conflicts. Her first play, Tais-toi et creuse (“Shut up and dig”) was awarded the RFI Theatre Prize 2015, selected by Cross-Chanel Theater (UK), and is currently being translated into English. Alma, her most recent play, was staged in September 2018 as part of "Fissures" during the Festival des Francophonies en Limousin. In 2018 she was awarded the Prix d’aide à la Création – ArtCena, and the Prix du Quartier des Auteurs du Tarmac.

The Sea is my Nation is part of MIGRATIONS: HARBOUR EUROPE, a project led by LegalAliens theatre in collaboration with New Tides Platform UK and Migrant Dramaturgies Network, with the aim of finding new approaches to the theme of migration, with a particular focus on the representation of the migrant experience. All the plays are produced and performed by LegalAliens Theatre Company and directed by Becka McFadden.