London Theatre 1 was invited to the Camden People’s Theatre to watch the final dress rehearsal for this new and ambitious work written and directed by Zishen (Cindy) Gao.
Over 50 minutes, we saw a cast of five young and enthusiastic actors of Chinese descent, delivering a highly stylised piece packed with symbolism and allegory. The play is aiming to say something profound about migration and how migrants are treated – and it does this through the unlikely metaphor of a flock of seagulls.
The cast wear the most amazing and intricate costumes to transform themselves into seagulls. Created by Yizhuo (Eizo) Zhao, these outfits are so delicate and fragile that one fears that they may not survive a long run, and indeed, pieces of them were coming off during the rehearsal.
The play starts well with the birds rehearsing their V formation “to make the flock look like it belongs” so they can pass the assessment examination for them to obtain a perch. Within the flock, one bird is the ‘Director,’ one is the ‘Designer,’ and another is the ‘Writer,’ who is also the source of the funding the flock need to satisfy the ‘Seagull Council’ – a shadowy but influential body which remains unseen despite the line of chairs reserved for the Council along either side of the stage.
As the performance proceeds, the goalposts keep shifting and the cost of belonging increases, making it feel impossible for them to attain. We see some of this play out in multi-media AV, including ominous pre-recorded voice-overs and digital projections behind the actors. There is a countdown to the assessment deadline and assorted cryptic messages, which the lighting made hard to read. There is also a digital timer that is used throughout and eventually frozen at a particular value. It is unclear as to what this was meant to represent – it may be symbolic to those more familiar with the bureaucracy around British immigration procedures. That was certainly the case with the £38,700 that the seagulls were required to find, as this was the minimum income requirement for a UK visa introduced by the previous government in 2024. The flock are told it has been increased to £41,700, as recently announced by the present government.
The cast, Zixuan Zhou, Man Yun Ku, Clarissa Liaw, Hangming Zhang and Elaine Li Quan, are hugely energetic. Their physicality and synchronised, avian movements are excellent – they have clearly already spent a lot of time rehearsing. Unfortunately, their voices were sometimes lost in the mix of pre-recorded sound, and dialogue was occasionally delivered as they faced away from the audience. It was obvious that English was not the first language for some of the actors, making it harder to tune in to what was being said. This is a complex work trying to transmit a lot of ideas, so maybe surtitles would help?
At the heart of this play is an imaginative, allegorical conceit that wants to make its audience think, but much more explanation is needed if we lay spectators, are to get the messages. Why is the flock set up like a theatre group? Why do they leave the stage in a dishevelled mess at one point? What is it about the Golden Feather?
Labelled in the programme as a ‘Brechtian choral satire’, they might also want to add ‘Kafkaesque’ to this description: the seagulls are trying to impress an invisible but pervasive and influential administration where “migration becomes a showcase you can never quite pass.”
It was fascinating to get a glimpse at this work in progress, but it needs more work to reach a wider audience. I look forward to seeing where this idea can be taken in the future.
Fiona Gilbert
To stay, what must we become?
In a country obsessed with queuing in the drizzling rain, a group of migratory birds huddle together in a ‘flight corridor’, practicing their perfect V formation. Their goal is simple: to prove they are high-value, low-risk, and worthy of a perch. But this is no ordinary rehearsal. It is a high-stakes survival test governed by an invisible, shifting bureaucracy.
As the Policy Voice barks new thresholds from the shadows, the cost of belonging rises: from £38,700 to an unattainable sum. The air grows thin. The wind turns hostile. Under the icy gaze of system that treats living beings as mere data points, the flock begins to fracture.
How much of song must you mute to be heard? How many feathers must you clip to fit into a cage labelled ‘home’?
Visa, Drama, and Other Disasters is a visceral, darkly comedic exploration of borders, belonging and the crushing weight of the administrative machine. Combining sharp dialogue with intense physical theatre, it exposes the structural cracks in the narratives of ‘success’ and ‘integration’.
If birds can cross the sky without documents, why must humans ask permission to follow the same wind?
CAST
INVESTOR – WRITER Zixuan(Alina) Zhou
DIRECTOR Man Yun Ku
ACTOR Clarissa Liaw
RUNNER Hangming (Rowan) Zhang
DESIGNER Elaine Li Quan
CREATIVES
Producer / Writer / Director Zishen (Cindy) Gao
Co-director Kuba Pawełczak
Assisant director Elaine Li Quan
Assistant creative producer Xiaoran Yan & Zixuan (Alina) Zhou
Interpreter Chen (Alice) Qian
Poster designer Yunzhi Wang
Poster font Ranni Chen
Set designer Ruomeng Li
Lighting designer Mengyun (Melody) Liu
Sound designer Zhuoer Zhou
Props & costume designer Yizhuo (Eizo) Zhao
VISA, DRAMA AND OTHER DISASTERS
Camden People’s Theatre
4 April 2026
