Performing im/mobility: Going beyond the testimony trap

In 2012 Alexandra D'Onofrio set up a series of theatre workshops as part of a larger research project using a variety of arts and creative techniques to carry out a methodological investigation into the interior and imaginative lifeworlds of migrants. A group of actors and researchers were joined by three young Egyptian migrants in a workshop using drama exercises to illuminate the ways in which they formed stories to narrate their lived experiences. This piece discusses the impact of distorted media discourses around migration and the ways in which audio-visual, performative and textual anthropological representations of migration can be used to highlight the political responsibility of bringing people's experiences, aspirations, contradictions and voices into the public realm.