Becoming British is a six-hour durational performance installation challenging concepts of national identity and belonging form the perspective of first-generation migrants in the UK. Performed by a cast of five, the piece unfolds through a series of one-hour repetitive, meticulous and rule-bound tasks evoking the invisible demands placed on those navigating the UK’s immigration system.

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Developed through interviews, workshops, and a curated exhibition of the same name, Becoming British is rooted in lived experience. Each action in the performance is a metaphor for the process of assimilation: learning, pleasing, adapting, waiting. The audience is free to move through the space, unbound by the restrictions performers must obey, encountering the work as quietly confrontational or unexpectedly intimate.

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This is not a show with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s a system you step into. A slow burn. A mirror. A provocation.

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Originally commissioned for Migration Matters Festival with support from Sheffield Theatres and later presented at Centrala (Birmingham) and ROAR (Rotherham) with support from Arts Council England. 

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Becoming British continues to tour across the UK and internationally inviting audiences to reflect on citizenship, identity, and the unspoken cost of belonging.

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TEAM​

Created by Lora Krasteva

Performers in Birmingham Kendra Aaron, Denis Boyer, Lora Krasteva, Mikhail Lim, Maame Ntiri

Performers in Rotherham Samuel Carrera, Isabella Leung, Fredlin Morency, Miray Sidhom, Christina Tsoutsi

Associate Director Christina Tsoutsi

Set design by Bethany Wells

Lighting Design by Marty Langthorne 

Production Managed by Misha Benjamin 

Stage Managed in Rotherham by Alexander Payne

Soundscape by NikNak

Produced by Claire Gilbert for LVK ltd.

Funded by Arts Council England 

Photography by Kevin Blake

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Developed with & originally performed by - Denis Boyer, Leonor Estrada Franke, Lora Krasteva, Isabella Leung, Christina Tsoutsi​