On Tuesday 22 October, members of the Right to Remain team went to see King Troll (The Fawn), a co-production project of the New Diorama Theatre and Kali Theatre. 

The play – a thriller – was written by Sonali Bhattacharyya and directed by Milli Bhatia. It follows the lives of two South Asian sisters desperately trying to hold onto their humanity whilst navigating the immigration system on a cold, grey, island: a system which is broken-by-design. 

King Troll (The Fawn) so aptly depicts the constantly moving goalposts of immigration control, and the ever-tempting narrative of the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’. We highly recommend that those who are able to purchase tickets and see it before it ends on 2nd November!

Alongside the stage production, the New Diorama Theatre has held space for community amidst the various painful and moving parts of the immigration estate that the play explores. For example, alongside one Saturday night performance, a workshop was held on How to Stop an Immigration Raid. 

And, on the night we attended, our Director, Eiri Ohtani was invited to contribute to a post-performance panel entitled ‘Border Resistance – Activism and Imagination’. Alongside colleagues from Migrants Organise and Detention Action, the panel explored what we should be attentive to in a post-Labour era, the reality of enforcement on people’s daily lives (including digitalisation), and what solidarity and community care really mean. The panel was moderated by journalist, activist, organiser and co-editor of Red Pepper magazine, Amardeep Singh Dhillon.

Thank you so much to the whole King Troll (the Fawn) team for inviting us to share in this space with you, and for so beautifully capturing the human experience within the dystopia that is the border violence regime.