"This Kind of Air " is a powerful account of family relations and immigrant life in the UK, featuring original music. It tells the story of a Romanian mother and her two daughters, navigating their life in 21st century Britain. One is too afraid to leave the house, one is obsessed with her degree of “Englishness”, and one is much too overworked to even think about her cultural identity. Each of them has a contractual relationship with Maxwell, a wealthy Englishman who likes to dress-up as a dog.
Selected out of over 1,500 submissions, This Kind of Air was first performed as a work-in-progress piece at the 2019 October-fest by Pint Sized, at the Bunker Theatre, London. Since then, the play has secured funding and partnerships, booking work-in-progress slots at New Diorama Theatre, Theatre Deli and at Hull Truck's GROW Festival. It was also shortlisted for the Untapped Award 2020. This Kind of Air has now undergone a 2 week-long R&D in 2021, a development workshop at The Royal Court Theatre in 2022, and will be developed as a full-scale production to be staged in 2024.
Writer's statement
"Since we first met at the Bunker, both me and Nastazja Domaradzka, the director I’ve been developing it with, were extremely motivated about creating visibility for Eastern European Migrants and the way they have been represented ( or more rather invisibilized ) in post-Brexit Uk - this story is our story, our friends’ story, our families’ story. EE migrants make up one of the highest immigrant populations present in Britain, and yet the representation of Eastern European narratives on English stages is almost none. The feedback we got at each stage of development proved to us that this kind of play is urgently needed on English stages - and that it can start a conversation about a topic that is right now under-addressed in the UK theater - the racialization of Eastern European Migrants. Even the extremely slow reaction several venues had when it came to programme it, signaled us that it touches a very sensitive issue and motivates us to further push to develop it into a full production. The feedback we got helped us understand this could have value for so many people that are right now invisible in the UK theatre:
“It does contain all of the EE experience in it - the reasons we come, the hopes we have, the reasons we stay, the intergenerational difference, the racism of it all - it's so so very rich in nuance and detail and one of the few things I have read about us that feels from us (which is to say - I've read loads of EE plays about EE migration that feel pre-translated, like we are all already reframing our experience for English folk). It feels like a text that's a structural intervention as much as a play - and that's both wonderful and such a revolutionary thing for English theatre.” ( Bojana Jankovic, PhD studying Eastern European performed identities );
“Vera Ion is a writer of real promise and daring. This Kind of Air is a play of rare honesty and insight” Simon Stephens, award winning playwright
“This Kind of Air is an excellent work in progress. It is original and refreshing and tackles some serious and interesting topics about modern life, in particular the life of immigrants in Britain. I think it addresses underrepresented voices in British theatre.” Martin Derbyshire, Executive Director, OUT OF JOINT
“The writing of this play shines. This play fantastically gives voice to a section of the population we almost never hear from in art. And it does with such wit and compassion and entertainment.”Simon Block, writer for stage and TV
“There is a dearth of work like this on British stages at the moment. This play speaks about
the fragile borders and destruction of unions… emotionally devastating.” Abi Zakarian,
award winning playwright