The Linen Room

Using The Linen Room, I would like you to reflect on the creation of community in Direct Provision Centres and
in the outside communities where refugees and asylum seekers have been situated.
Think about the following points/questions below and use them to help you formulate a response to this week’s
work that includes the play and ideas of community, isolation, cultural difference, intercultural ignorance,
learning, and understanding, and living daily life in a hotel which serve as a direct provision centre.
You might reflect on how a sense of community among the residents at the Grand Hotel or in Wicklow Town
were described in any of the supporting materials for this week by town members, news agencies, or the
(direct provision) residents themselves?
Where do we find a sense of community, with all of its idiosyncrasies of place and people, represented in The
Linen Room? In the performance at the Abbey Theatre as a 5×5 project?
In the Irish Independent newspaper article, “Camaraderie and Challenges,” there are observations of how
“alone” new refugee and asylum seekers to Ireland can be, and one resident, Idah, talks of what Wicklow has
become for her and other residents when she says, “Now we are one. Unity is everything” (4). Where is unity,
oneness expressed in the play? How?
How did the residents-asylum seekers as performers contribute to or affect the storytelling for you?
Address what speaks to you. The same two-three paragraphs in length. Please keep to the same requests as
always about the technical aspects of the writing.