Theatre review: Here We Stay, Citz Studio, Glasgow
Here We Stay
Citz Studio
Star rating: * * * *
If you want a passionate, vivid reminder that asylum-seekers continue to arrive in Glasgow, though, then this weekend there’s a chance to see this powerful 6pm curtain-raiser in the Circle Studio, presented by the Scottish Refugee Council and the Citizens’ Community Company.
Here We Stay is messy, rough-edged, and presented by a big community company of twenty performers; half are asylum seekers, many have never been on stage before. Yet the story it tells – of how these new Glaswegians arrived from Somalia and South Africa, Iran and Kurdistan, Egypt and Hong Kong, and how they struggle to survive and thrive – is so charged with energy, and so rich in its variety, that it fairly takes the breath away.
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Hide AdWhere the dialogue stumbles and jokes around the lack of an immediate common language, the music soars and sings. Musical director and composer Matthew Brown leads a terrific six-piece band.
And if so many of the cast are now willing to call Glasgow their home, it’s partly because – thanks to Neil Packham and Elly Goodman, and their outstanding Citizens Community team – they have found a space where they can meet other Glasgow citizens in this rich human choir; and begin to share their music, along with all the dreams it contains.