Camden Fringe 2026: Freedom – Chisenhale Dance Space, London

The experiences of those who need to migrate to countries, including the United Kingdom, form the foundation of Freedom, a multidisciplinary visual arts project by Unity Arts Collective and Surya Dev Chandra, created in collaboration with migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers.

The piece is part physical theatre, part puppetry, and also an art gallery and exhibition. A path is laid out around the dance space, with facts about the migrant experience mixed in with artworks. The audience is encouraged to move around the space throughout, although the pathway itself is a little too simplistic to sustain movement. By the time Chandra begins his part of the performance, the exploration of the exhibition element is generally complete, and the audience resumes their seats on the space’s bleachers (although in current weather, the presence of fans focused on the seating may have some influence there).

Although puppeteer James Frost, who also acts as an Emcee for the project, advises that the work is not designed to be presented to a seated audience, it works best from that vantage point. Multidisciplinary artist Ester Ricci crafts dynamic backdrops from coloured liquids, chains and other materials that lose their impact when audience members walk across the projected images.

Chandra himself, who starts the performance curled in one corner, comes alive later, but his initial frenetic movement around the space feels aimless until, after scrabbling through a mound of sand, he uncovers a mask. When he dons the mask, his character transforms: his movements become more deliberate and measured, a change amplified as Frost helps him into a full-body puppet suit.

Both the mask and suit have a rough-and-ready, homemade feel, shared by a couple of other life-size human puppets in the space. Chandra alone manipulates one, presenting a couple entwined in devotion and support. The third comes to life as Frost encourages audience members to handle its head, arms, and legs. Slowly and tentatively, Chandra’s character leads the audience’s puppet across the terrain of the space, into a small boat as Frost manipulates a shark around their feet.

Sound artist Jesu Piceno accompanies all the movement, combining recorded sound with live percussion, woodwind instruments, and vocalisations from both himself and Ricci. While the haunting soundscape occasionally cuts out, it remains a highly atmospheric backdrop.

Other puppetry involves a series of storks, which Frost flies around the space or lands on a nest where an egg hatches into a hungry chick. It’s in moments like this that the piece’s work-in-progress nature is brought to the fore. Several ideas in the piece feel like they haven’t yet cohered into a single work. Nor do some of the themes introduced in the exhibition text – including the UK’s policy of indefinite detention for asylum seekers, or that up to 90% of migrating children experience PTSD – feel like they have a presence in the performed work.

Then again, a single performance piece is only a sliver of what Freedom offers. This project encourages participation from those who have experienced, and are experiencing, forced displacement. The puppets, artworks and exhibits have been created through ongoing workshops, imbuing them with a sense of community that brings its own layers of importance.

As an individual performance piece, Freedom may not feel as ready and polished as one might hope. But it is a glimpse into an ongoing work that may not – and perhaps should not – ever feel truly complete.

Runs until 16 August 2026