Since February 2020, three of Northern Ireland’s most established independent production companies (Powerstone, Tinderbox, and DU Dance) have been working together on Little Stranger, a dance-theatre project about a child’s experience of migration and enforced displacement.
Little Stranger was funded by the Community Relations Council’s Small Grants Scheme.
According to the latest annual Global Trends report, issued last month by UNHCR, in 2020 the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, violence and persecution reached a record 82.4 million, which is a 4% increase on the previous year. Of particular concern is a sharp rise in the number of unaccompanied minors.
The creative concept of Little Stranger began with an encounter by the writer Jane Coyle on a Paris street, where the reality of the situation was forcibly brought home to her:
“On a bitterly cold night in the winter of 2018, I passed a refugee family, huddled against the railings of the luxurious George V Hotel near the Arc de Triomphe, and stopped to speak to them,” Jane said.
“As I said my goodbyes, the little girl held out her hand to me, with a smile that could have lit up the city. I will never forget the touch of her small, warm hand, dry with dirt from the street. I conceived Little Stranger for her and millions of other children and their families, relying for survival on the kindness of strangers.”
The idea began as a piece of physical theatre, in which the central character was a child, dwarfed and overwhelmed by bureaucracy, a strange language and an alien culture. But gradually it became evident that there were no words that could adequately narrate this poignant story.
Director Patrick O’Reilly explained his creative vision for the piece:
“Standing on the Hill of the O’Neill in Dungannon, the view is breathtaking. The land continues for miles, and beyond to the horizon. I feel tiny and insignificant in this vast world. Imagine if your only option was to walk forward into the horizon, leaving behind everything you knew, walking into the unknown. This overwhelming feeling is what I am trying to capture in Little Stranger. The shocking reality of displacement is explored through the eyes of a faceless little stranger, looking out at a strange new world.
“Dungannon, where our dancers come from, is a town where people from all over the world are living and working in an important historic location. We want to capture the energy of a place that celebrates and unites cultural ideas and differences.”
The first phase of the project was a four-day workshop held in Dungannon in February 2020. Young dancers aged between 7 and 17 years from the town’s multi-cultural youth dance groups Sutemos and Suteminis worked with O’Reilly and their director Sheena Kelly on translating themes of loneliness, confusion and enforced exile into the vocabulary of dance and expressionist theatre.
Responding to Covid restrictions, Phase 2 is a film and online panel discussion, which were originally scheduled for production in March of this year. The premiere features on the programme of this year’s EastSide Arts Festival in Belfast and will be streamed on 14 August. The panel will comprise professionals and volunteers who work with Northern Ireland’s new arrivals.
The film will be shot on location in and around Dungannon, along the disused railway line, in a backstreet in the town centre and on the Hill of the O’Neill.
From the onset, Little Stranger has been supported by the Community Relations Council. Paul Jordan, director of funding and development, described how the project fits with CRC’s ethos:
“The Community Relations Council (CRC) funded the Little Stranger project through our Community Relations & Cultural Diversity Small Grant Scheme. The investment is intended to increase understanding of cultural backgrounds, and supports migrants and refugees in integrating into communities across Northern Ireland. The project involves young people in Dungannon coming together under professional tuition to develop this dance-theatre performance piece, thereby improving social interaction and building confidence. With the release of the film and the panel discussion portion of the project, CRC hopes to bring the story of Little Stranger to an even wider audience.”
Event details
Date: 14 August 2021
Venue: Online at EastSide Arts Festival, Belfast
Attend the event
Attend the screening and panel discussion here: www.eastsidearts.net/event/little-stranger