The Linguist

20 The Linguist Vol/64 No/3 ciol.org.uk/thelinguist FEATURES INSPIRING WORK LegalAliens' 'Tugging at the Sea' production (main image); and Lara Parmiani (above) Lara Parmiani explains how her LegalAliens Theatre supports migrants with language learning and more Tell us a bit about your background and your interest in supporting migrants… I come from a family who had experienced displacement. My grandmother was a Jewish refugee from Hungary and my mum's family moved from a poor village in southern Italy to the industrial north, where they were called names for being southerners. So the migrant experience is in my blood. I moved to London from Milan with a degree in dramaturgy and training as an actor, full of excitement about joining what I thought was going to be a vibrant, international, multicultural theatre scene. But the reality was different. I quickly realised that 'multiculturalism' was often surface-level, and that migrant voices, particularly those with accents, non-traditional backgrounds or different training, were rarely centred. At first, that felt disorienting. But over time, I embraced my identity as a migrant artist. It became a political and creative position. Rather than trying to 'fit in', I began to explore what it means to speak from the margins, and to build spaces where others could do the same. Supporting migrants isn't just something I care about, it's woven into who I am and how I work. I know what it means to navigate a new country, language and system while trying to stay connected to your own voice. Theatre became my way of doing that, and now I try to offer that space to others. So how did your company, LegalAliens Theatre, come about? I started it as a response to this feeling of 'non- belonging'. There was no theatre company representing people like me. It was a way to say: 'No, we're not going to erase who we are to belong. We're going to create a space where migrant artists start from who they are, where multiple languages, histories and identities are not barriers but the material.' In a nutshell, we make international, multilingual, politically engaged theatre, always collaborative, always rooted in the lived experiences of migration and displacement. We work with professional artists and community members, side by side, across genres, borders and forms. LegalAliens was never just about producing shows; it was about building an ecosystem where migrant creativity could thrive on its own terms. How do you choose your productions? We're drawn to stories that challenge clichéd narratives, explore identity across borders or respond to urgent social and political questions. We often adapt or devise rather than 'perform plays' in a traditional sense. We're interested in voices that haven't been heard in English, or at all. How do you make decisions about aspects of production such as style, interpretation and staging? Our process is collective and fluid. We don't start with a fixed 'concept'; we start from the body, from images, from questions. Our aesthetic is influenced by some of the great practitioners of the 20th century – Brecht, Peter Brook, Anne Bogart, Eugenio Barba – directors who treated theatre as a physical, visual and political medium, not just a vehicle for text. We love working with multimedia, strong visual metaphors, movement and humour, even when the themes are heavy. Humour is a powerful tool for survival and disarming the audience. In The Flowers of Srebrenica, we worked from a book by Irish academic Aidan Hehir, but we framed it to a chorus of women who are not in the book. So we transformed it into a multi-voiced, multidisciplinary piece combining text, movement and personal testimony. We were working with difficult material (genocide, trauma, memory) so it was essential not to make it a didactic experience. We challenged the linear narrative because that's how memory and grief often work. Why is it important for you to offer free drama classes to local migrants? Because access matters. Many refugees and migrants face barriers, not just in language but in confidence, networks, time and money. We want to create a space where they can explore Stage support

• Cover