Who: BANBHA Theatre Company
Where: A4 SOUNDS, Inns Quay, Dublin
When: Saturday May 5th 2018, 8-11pm (Opening Night Party)
Saturday May 5th 7-10pm | Sunday May 6th 2-5pm & 7-10pm

BANBHA theatre company is an unstoppable force. Founded by Trinity College students Cara Brophy-Browne and Tara Louise Morrison in 2015 alongside sound producer Susie Birmingham, the group made waves at Smock Alley Scene and Heard Festival in 2016 with The WIN – a devised piece focusing on the work of the Women’s Information Network following the introduction of the 8th Amendment in 1982. Two years later, the group returns to Dublin with The Re//Presentation Rooms, an interactive multi-media installation focusing on the disenfranchisement and diaspora of LGBTQ+ refugees in Athens as part of their Re//Presentation series.  

“What is the difference between a soundbite and a story? What are the uses and misuses of these soundbites? The necessity and efficacy of pity? The possibilities and impossibilities of representing one’s complete self?” These are the questions BANBHA Theatre Company ask themselves and their audiences with their new work The Re//Presentation Rooms. Showcasing a year’s worth of work for BANBHA and the LGBTQI+ Refugees in Greece initiative, The Re//Presentation Rooms is guaranteed to be an unmissable experience where art and activism meet.

While studying at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, BANBHA founders Brophy-Browne and Morrison attended a fundraising party for the LGBTQI+ organisation. “One of the founders [of LGBTQ+ Refugees in Greece] was speaking to us about how solidarity is great and all but what the group really needs is money,” said Brophy-Browne to Tn2 Magazine last night. “So we were like okay, what can we do to raise money?” Re//Presentation was born. The plan was to stage a theatrical piece in Athens while simultaneously streaming to festivals and audiences worldwide. Titled The Re//Presentation Workshops, the piece was devised by the two founding directors of BANBHA and a cast of queer refugees who remained anonymous for their safety. Admission to The Re//Presentation Workshops and the worldwide live stream was donation based with proceeds going directly to LGBTQI+ Refugees in Greece, the organisation that BANBHA continues to fundraise for with The Re//Presentation Rooms. The devising process for The Re//Presentation Workshops took four to six weeks with an unprecedented time pressure placed on the team. Brophy-Browne noted this, highlighting the instability for refugees in Greece: “the cast couldn’t be sure of how long they would be in Athens, they may have been relocated or sent somewhere else in Greece and we didn’t want anyone to have to miss out”.

After having staged The Re//Presentation Workshops in the spring of 2017, and successfully live streaming to sites such as Dubai, Boston, and Dublin, Brophy-Browne said the project still had an archive of interviews and video work that LGBTQI+ Refugees in Greece and BANBHA wanted to display. The task of bringing this video material to the stage would prove difficult, a point they tried to work into the concept of the piece. “Avoiding just using the ‘soundbite’ moments” and keeping true to the participants were key points. “We had to do [The Re//Presentation Rooms] in such a way as not to impose any new narrative,” said Brophy-Browne. “We were to present the material and allow meaning to be made by the audience”. BANBHA, therefore, chose to approach the next step in the Re//Presentation project as an art installation. The Re//Presentation Rooms will be “a twenty-minute guided journey through a sonic and visual installation”. “The aim”, states BANBHA, “is is to invite the spectator into, and move them through, a political space” with a recommended donation of €5 going directly to the three people whose stories are being exhibited.

The highlight of the weekend will be the opening party. Held in the A4 Sounds courtyard tonight from 8pm, BANBHA promises a celebration of music with a donation-based bar, and unreal LGBT Refugees Welcome merch. We recommend rearranging tonight’s cocktails for tomorrow and bringing everyone along. Maybe your mam and your dog too if that’s your vibe but dump the Bumble date if they’re not game. Just bop for a good cause. All donations from the night will go directly to LGBTQI+ Refugees in Greece, the organisation that collaborated with and inspired the Re//Presentation project.

BANBHA’s Re//Presentation series aims to create performances and experiences that accurately “re-present the lives, experiences, and opinions of the participants”. The Re//Presentation Rooms is a much-needed addition to the project and will be eye-opening for even the most seasoned activist.

The exhibition with run Saturday, May 5th at 7pm-11pm and Sunday, May 6th 2pm-5pm and 7pm-10pm. Check out the Facebook event and click attend here.