Playing the refugee: aesthetics of trauma in mainstream refugeehood dramaturgy

There can hardly be a more commonplace way to start talking about playing on stage than stating the social and political character that theatre has had since its inception. Even when it is not self-defined as ‘political’, the aesthetic and the educational value of theatre is considered self-evident while its engagement with issues of the day is very common. Refugeehood could not escape stage representation, and this is what I consider in the following few pages. How should refugehood be represented on stage beyond aestheticisation of trauma?.