A powerful and moving new musical being performed in West Leeds asks – ‘what kind of society do we want to live in?’

Leeds-based Red Ladder Theatre Company presents Sanctuary, a compelling new musical written by Armley’s Boff Whalley (We’re Not Going Back, Armley: The Musical) and award-winning playwright Sarah Woods. It charts one man’s plea for help and refuge at a time when not all strangers are welcomed.

The musical – artistic director Cheryl Martin’s first Red Ladder production since taking the helm in January this year – opens at Theatre Royal Wakefield on September 19, before embarking on an eight-week tour to theatres and community venues across the country this autumn, including St Mary’s Church in Hawksworth Wood.

Sanctuary tells the story of Alland (Aein Nasseri), a young Iranian man who begs to be given sanctuary at a church in northern England, sparking a community to react in all the ways each member believes to be right.

Molly (Ingrid Bolton-Gabrielsen), a young worker there, joins forces with vicar Fiona (Emily Chattle) to resist both the angry vigilantes and the hard-hearted authorities beyond the church walls to try to protect Alland.

Holding a special community service where voices on all sides sing their songs of redemption and condemnation, Fiona asks the question to everyone present: “Do we give Alland over to the State or live up to our well-versed ideals of compassion?”

The creative team has worked closely with people hoping to call the UK home, shaping Alland’s story. Writers Boff and Sarah spent the past six years collaborating on projects for Welsh National Opera, in partnership with the Oasis Centre for refugees and asylum seekers, to co-create original operas for a more diverse audience, and director Cheryl spent eight years directing women refugees and asylum seekers in shows for Manchester’s Community Arts Northwest. 

Earlier this year, Leeds-based Mafwa Theatre ran sessions with the team and students from Wakefield-based CAPA College, who then created their own workshops for secondary school pupils, supported by asylum seekers, that have helped shape the production.

This unique collaboration between Red Ladder, Theatre Royal Wakefield and CAPA College, featuring a chorus drawn from their brilliant performing arts students, mixes hard-hitting ideas with memorable melodic tunes and harmonies.

Cheryl Martin said: “Sanctuary comes at a critical moment in the conversation about immigration, refugees and asylum seekers. I hope this musical helps open up this conversation because it’s one that goes to the heart of who we are and the kind of society we want to live in.”

Writer Sarah Woods, co-creator of Sanctuary, said: “Boff and I have been collaborating for a number of years, including co-creating work with people seeking refuge and asylum, and this is a story that we both feel needed to be told.

“There is a lot of hostility in the media when it comes to immigration and we want to counter this narrative by offering audiences different viewpoints. I believe the stories we tell can really affect change in the world. A lot of people who come to the UK seeking asylum are here because they’ve stood up against oppression, doing things that many of us might not have the strength to do. We can learn a lot from them and the stories they share with us.”

Sanctuary co-writer, Boff Whalley, said: “Working with refugees and asylum seekers over the past handful of years has been an education. A steep learning curve in understanding how both Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ and the non-stop onslaught of the trash media has impacted Britain. 

“We’re a nation in turmoil over immigration. A country at war with itself over small boats – whilst at the heart of it all are desperate people fleeing war and imprisonment, searching for hope and a place to call home.

“And that’s why ‘Sanctuary’ is important right now. Which all sounds a bit grim, doesn’t it? And grim isn’t a great starting point for good musical theatre! So the idea is to make this big subject entertaining as well as poignant and educational – it’s my job with the music to use melody and harmony to draw people in, to create shared moments, to give the audience a helping hand into this story of a young asylum-seeker looking for sanctuary.

“Music is such a powerful tool, and it can cross divides, it can patch up differences between people. Which is what ‘Sanctuary’ will hope to do.”

Sanctuary welcomes us in and asks the question: “Do we want safety and freedom for only ourselves, or for us all?”

On 28th September at 7.30pm St Mary’s Church in Hawksworth Wood are hosting the play by Red Ladder.

For more information and to book tickets visit Sanctuary – Red Ladder Theatre Company.

In depth – a Q&A with Boff Whalley

Writer and composer Boff Whalley is the co-creator of Sanctuary along with playwright Sarah Woods. Here, he discusses the idea behind the story, the power of musicals and why this is a story that needs to be told. 

Where did the idea for Sanctuary come from? 

It came from the fact that Sarah and me were working with a refugee and asylum centre in Cardiff on and off for about three-and-a-half years trying to find musicians, writers, singers and poets, and by default getting to know the stories of ordinary people trapped in extraordinary circumstances. As a young lad I remember there was the case of Viraj Mendis who sought asylum in a church in Manchester to try and avoid being arrested and sent back home to Sri Lanka. There was a campaign and I remember going over there and people spent the night outside and inside the church to try and help him. So that was in my mind. It’s also a bit of a hidden story – this idea of people looking for a way to escape and to be protected. We thought why we don’t look at this idea of sanctuary and what it means to people who are religious and fleeing persecution.

Does the story naturally lend itself to being a stage production?

We were both thinking wouldn’t it be good to have a stage production that doesn’t look like you’ve just walked into a theatrical box, and instead you’re walking into a church, which is already a kind of stage. It’s got its pulpit and its organ, so it’s set up as a visual spectacle, so the minute you walk in you are part of a church congregation rather than a theatre-going audience. 

Why did you want to do this as a musical rather than a play?

We thought let’s make it a musical and try to avoid the idea of people going to watch a piece of theatre that’s grim, depressing and hopeless. Especially in light of the recent riots. Without music there was a danger it could end up as more bombardment of ugliness and fear. So we thought, let’s do it with songs and melodies and some sense of hope running through it where you’re rooting for people. It’s such a lovely way to connect with characters rather than having big soliloquies. I love the idea of taking something that is potentially quite depressing and using music to create something uplifting.

Musicals have enjoyed a revival in recent years often tackling controversial topics. What do you think is behind this resurgence?

When I was growing up West Side Story was a real marker for me in terms of telling a story about gangs, but at the time I didn’t know it had anything to do with Romeo and Juliet. I just thought it was brilliant because it was telling this really hard-hitting, powerful story and doing it with some of the best music that you could ever hear. And lately we’ve had shows like Hamilton and The Book of Mormon, which both use music brilliantly and do a similar kind of thing.

You’ve got a longstanding connection to Red Ladder. What is the appeal in working with them?

One of the big attractions is the collaborative nature of Red Ladder. I think a lot of theatre and art wants to be collaborative but when it comes down to it isn’t really. But in all the years I’ve worked with Red Ladder the rehearsal room has always been really open in terms of everyone being able to make suggestions and change things. Cheryl Martin is the artistic director but she’ll ask what other people think and is willing to be swayed by other viewpoints, and I love that. A lot of people in the arts have their own way of doing things and stick to them, but Red Ladder has never been like that.

Do you prefer collaborating to working on your own on a project and how do they differ?

I prefer collaborating, definitely. From the very beginning when I first started to write words and music I would take a song to our fledgling punk band and someone would say ‘how about changing this drum beat?’ I think you can always be helped by someone else’s ideas. And working with actors is a real collaboration. So many times I’ve been in rehearsals having written a line and I know how it’s meant to sound and the actor does it in a way I never expected that makes it better. I enjoy working on my own but then I love taking a song or a lyric to other people and asking, ‘how can we make this better?’ 

What do you hope to achieve through a piece of work, whether it’s a song, a poem, or a musical?

Everything I’ve done, whether it’s music or writing, has always had a political or socially conscious reason behind it. My main motivation is will this make people think and will it get them talking? Does it avoid just being nice and pleasant? I used to go to plays with Rod Dixon, the former artistic director at Red Ladder, and I remember him saying to me halfway through a big production one time, ‘well, it looks lovely and it sounds great, and the actors are brilliant, but what’s it saying?’ And he was right. I want people to think a piece of art is saying something, that it has an opinion.

What inspires or motivates you to tell a particular story?

First and foremost I’m moved by what’s going on in the world and then I have to put pen to paper. I often go for a run in the morning in the woods and if the sun’s shining you can think all’s good in the world and then I get back and turn the radio on and straight away I’m back in this world where I’m like ‘everything’s not alright’ and there are things we need to talk about. It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to put into words something that hopefully people will listen to. 

Why is theatre important in telling stories like Sanctuary?

In the last ten years theatre has become something entirely different to what it was. I think it’s become an antidote to looking at things beautifully done on a screen that are scripted and done again and again and then frozen. Theatre is about real people, right in front of you, doing something that can be different every night, and that’s such an art. If I go to the theatre with my son or my daughter I remind them that what they’re seeing no one will ever see again the same way. It’s not like going to the cinema or watching Netflix. It’s also very physical and we’ve lost a lot of that idea of people doing things together, though I think it’s coming back and theatre’s a big part of that. Life’s not like Netflix – life, as we’ve seen with the riots, is visceral and close to home and physical.

How important is theatre in terms of getting young people involved in the arts?

We’ve done some work with CAPA College in Wakefield with 16 and 17 year-olds who want to get into performance, or acting, or dance, and they’re incredibly talented. With Sanctuary we’ve got a chorus of nine, like a Greek chorus, who are commenting on the action and helping the audience understand what’s going on and they sing these lovely acappellas. Most of them have never done this sort of thing before and it’s such a brilliant opportunity for them to be on stage in front of an audience doing the thing they want to do.

What impact do you hope Sanctuary has?

I hope that it contributes to the ongoing debate about how we treat people who are seeking asylum. The more that’s said about this the better, because the noise that comes from some politicians and sections of the media is so overwhelming and negative that everything we do that counters this is important.