Iranian director Hamid Pourazari is planning show with 80 cast members that will be staged in a Croydon car park.
The renowned film director has enlisted refugees living in Croydon to perform the Unfinished Dream play as part of the London International Festival of Theatre’s Refugee Week.
The content of the play is going to be created by refugees and volunteers over a series of workshops and it will then be performed in the Q Park in Surrey Street.
Mr. Pourazari, who is 43, said that he was inspired to put on the performance after he was amazed by the diversity in Croydon following a visit last year.
He said: “The area looked so much like downtown Tehran where our theatre workshop is. It is very dynamic with lots of people from different backgrounds and ages. I felt very close to that and liked it.”
The director has already worked with marginalised communities in Tehran and wanted to make the new production to show a new side to refugees.
He said: “We want to emphasise the feelings of people and how they express their emotions. We want to throw open their imagination through their body language and movement.”
Most of the actors are refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran and few have any stage experience.
Mr. Pourazari said that he lets the participants involved get creative and just moulds the ideas that they have.
The group gets to know each other through the acting workshops and reveal a different side of the usual perception of a refugee.
The car park setting extends the theme of the performance as the unfamiliar surroundings prompts a new response for the performers and the audience.
Mr. Pourazari said: “In order to find ourselves in this new place we have to put in more energy which means we have to have more creativity.”
The audience will be led from Fairfield Halls, where the show will start to the car park by the performers.
The production will be on from 21st June to 1st July. Tickets are available at the Fairfield Halls box office.