Now arriving at Bradford bus station: new play celebrating immigration
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Version 0 of 1. David Cameron called it one of Britain’s most segregated cities; to others it is a magnet for bad news. Yet Bradford is also a City of Sanctuary, which welcomed almost half of the Syrian refugees who have been resettled in the UK since March 2014. Of the 216 Syrians who came under the government’s vulnerable persons relocation scheme, 106 ended up in Bradford. The West Yorkshire city is currently working out how it can house, school and care for the next tranche, who are soon to arrive from refugee camps on the Syrian border. While town hall administrators formulate a plan, a play is set to premiere at Bradford’s main bus and train station celebrating the city’s long history of immigration, which dates back to the 17th century Hugenots — French Protestants who suffered torture and mass killings under King Louis XIV. Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange is set among the toilets, waiting rooms and taxi rank of the rather grubby terminal. A promenade performance, it tells five stories based on real life conversations overheard by the playwright, Rav Sanghera, at the Interchange. One follows British-born Pakistani Sam, who berates Ayoub, an aslyum seeker begging for change by the cab rank. “Get a shop or summat. That’s what my Dad had to do. He wouldn’t have dreamt of begging,” Sam tells Ayoub. He then rants about the reality of life as a young Muslim man in Britain: “I spend most of my life apologising. For people I don’t even know. Saying sorry for any nutter that decides to blow themselves up or go on a killing spree. And have people looking at you. Suspicious. Like when you get asked to step aside at immigration at the airport cos you forgot to shave that day. And so you miss your flight home. When all you want to do is hug your wife and daughter. Watch EastEnders, and have a chip buttie.” Another scene eavesdrops on Mo and Sharon, two bus drivers whose cross-racial friendship has raised eyebrows at the Interchange and particularly among Mo’s conservative Muslim family. One more features Maggie, an elderly German Jewish refugee with kleptomaniac tendencies, who is befriended by a young Polish migrant. The work was commissioned by Freedom Studios, a Bradford-based theatre company that aims to help eradicate racism and prejudice by connecting different people and communities through making theatre and telling stories. Director Tom Wright said the play aims to confront the highs and lows of Bradford’s ever more diverse communities. “We wanted to explore what it means to open up a city to those people who are suffering, and to explore the tensions and resistance which results.” His cast is broadly representative of Bradford’s inner city districts, with three white British characters, three Asian characters and two white Europeans. “That was very definitely part of the mission statement from the beginning,” he said. Jane Steele, a Bradford-based actor of Trinidadian and Wakefield descent, said she hoped the play would showcase her adopted city’s warmth: “The other day I was on a bus and there was an old lady struggling to get on. Everybody on that bus, black, white, Muslim, Asian, stood up to help her. “I’ve never known such sideless generosity. Yes, of course Bradford’s got its problems. I’m not going to pretend it’s Brigadoon. But it’s beautiful and it’s rising from the ashes now.” Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange runs 6-10 October. Tickets £10/£5 plus booking fee. |