Throughout our piece we have incorporated different poems that we found surrounding the idea of war, and refugees. We originally came up with the idea of creating the first scene, as a camp and a community. We thought of using the poems that we had found, recording one each, and have the audio play over the scene, so it played out like thoughts in someone’s mind. Using these poems about the Syrian refugees, we wanted to create an atmosphere that would set the scene for the rest of the piece, giving our audience a sense of empathy.

We initially found 5 poems, with one in particular making reference to World War II. We then liked this idea of talking about other wars, as we felt that sometimes we forget that this has happened before, and that it has happened to our country. We soon realised that we could use these poems in a more effective way, which would bring the piece together more as a whole, and playing on the idea more, of ‘this could be us’ and ‘this has been us’. To do this we decided to change 3 of the poems we had originally used, finding more that did not necessarily reference this current crisis.

After finding ones we felt expressed what we wanted to say, we placed each one, throughout the piece in a part where we thought it made sense. We then felt it right to use these times to break the fourth wall, speaking directly to our audience, even referencing the poet’s name. We made this decision, so that each poem had a moment of focus. The performers in the back of the scene would only be making small movements or gestures, sometimes even in a freeze, so that the poem had a real chance to be heard.

When researching into these poems, we came across one that we thought wouldn’t quite fit within the piece, but would be perfect for the ending. Making references to our country’s role in the Syrian refugee crisis, including David Cameron and Tony Blair. We felt this completely epitomised what we wanted to say, and what we wanted our audience to walk away with. To establish our aim, we agreed that we needed to speak this poem as us, everyday people, not a character. We made the decision to change into our ‘normal’ clothes and then walk into the audience to sit amongst them. We felt this the most effective way of making our audience really think about what we were saying, and the message we tried to get across, with lines from the poem including ‘They’re facing their ultimate nightmare, and me? Well I’m just sitting here.’ (Poetrysoup.com, 2016).