Play highlights refugees’ plight

AFTER touring 17 countries, with a string of local and international awards, the Magnet Theatre’s longest-running production, Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking, will return to the Baxter this season.

Created in September 2006, foreshadowing the first violent attacks on Somali nationals in the Western Cape, the play was born out of an intense empathy with and imagining of what it must be like to lose one’s home and to feel strange in another place.

Directed by Mark Fleishman and starring Jennie Reznek and Faniswa Yisa, this production celebrates the resilience of human beings and the healing power of the imagination.

It traces the story of a young refugee woman in Africa who loses her family and home, and is forced to journey to a new place through many dangers and uncertainties.

“In 2006 the situation for refugees and asylum seekers in this country was difficult, frustrating and painful. With this work, we wanted to respond with a strong sense of the possibility of healing and renewal.

“It was created long before forced migration grew to become the theme of our age and is now, with more than 250 million migrants globally, more relevant than ever,” said Reznek.

Yisa and Reznek first performed together under Fleishman’s direction in 2004 in Fire-Raisers. Since then, they have created celebrated productions like Voices Made Night; Cargo; Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking and Autopsy.

Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking