Staging Injustice

In the past twenty years, there has been increasing scholarly interest in theatre and refugees. Despite this research, little attention has been paid to the performative aspects of asylum hearings. The aim of Staging Injustice is to examine asylum-hearing procedures as a form of courtroom drama in which the policies of many states are not only often played out against the interests of the refugee, but also in secrecy. Different perspectives are employed to consider the diverse practices of asylum hearings in various countries and the role that theatre can play in responding to them. The collection is interested in how theatre can illuminate, make more transparent, and bear witness to them. It reviews the diverse dramaturgical approaches in specific theatre productions such as verbatim theatre, docudrama, mixed media, and satire, and analyzes the scenography of the hearing and courtroom spaces in performative terms, indicating how they work for or against the interests of the applicant.