RIPPLES

Ripples is based on the life of Tafadzwa Muchenje, who was a 20-year-old student when he received a Home Office deportation letter wrongfully revoking his right to remain in the UK. It told him to return to Zimbabwe, a country he had not been to since he was a baby, while his mum and siblings could stay.

Now this deeply personal solo theatre show follows his years-long fight to overturn the error in an urgent interrogation of the UK’s hostile environment.

Ripples is presented by the UK’s leading theatre company of sanctuary and arts charity Stand & Be Counted Theatre.

Tafadzwa, now aged 32 and living in the North West, said: “What happened to me is shocking - but it was by no means a one-off. Immigration injustice is rampant but largely unseen, and by taking Ripples on tour we hope to shed more light on what is happening. The show is an act of defiance and also a way to give people going through the same thing some hope in the face of adversity.”

After three years in which he could not study or work, Tafadzwa successfully overturned the immigration error at a First-tier Tribunal.

Ripples is a raw, intimate and honest account of what happened, told through urgent new writing, physical theatre and immersive sound and video design. It launched at London’s Bush Theatre in January and as well as heading to HOME, is touring theatres across the north of the UK this March.

Artistic director Rosie MacPherson, co-writer and director of the show with Tafadzwa, said: “Tafadzwa is a bold and dynamic new voice in theatre. By taking his incredibly powerful story on tour across the UK, we are standing up for justice against an unfair and deliberately cruel immigration system.”