Bradford Theater Show gives a voice to Roma and Gypsy families

A new show in Bradford will highlight the struggles faced by Roma and Gypsy communities.

A Flag Enough, which will take place at the Teatrul din Moara, will celebrate Romanian culture with songs and traditional dance.

But it will also recount the community’s historical struggle with racism and marginalization – as well as its own fragmented sectarian relationships that tie into historical caste systems.

Co-creator Juice Vamosi said the aim is to help families “achieve social inclusion and become happy British citizens in the future”.

Mr Vamosi said there are believed to be around 5,000 families of Gypsy and Roma heritage – hailing from countries such as Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the former Czech Republic – living in Bradford.

Mr Vamosi, who created the show with Bradford artist and producer Javaad Alipoor, said his mission was to tackle “anti-Gypsyism”.

“It is a specific form of hatred aimed at Gypsies all over the world. There is no education about our people, about our history, about our language,” he said.

“Our ancestors left India about 1,000 years ago at different times and migrated by different routes, always looking for a new homeland, but we were never really welcome anywhere.

“We (also) gather different Roma groups to learn about each other through art, Roma groups that would never mix with each other and have many prejudices against each other.

“So it’s unbelievable that we managed to get here. These Roma families, many of them are illiterate and it’s very difficult to work with them, but they are very excited about the opportunity to perform.”

To put together the show, families attended workshops exploring different arts and performance methods to bring their experiences to life.

Mr Alipoor, who specializes in co-creating theater and art with marginalized and disadvantaged communities, said he hoped the project would support the “transformative” work of Mr Vamosi’s KaskoSan charity and help give voice to “a community that facing some of the most vicious racism in Britain”.

“Some of the communities that Juice works with are just coming in and creating a space for themselves culturally, politically and so on in this country, and we wanted to make a piece that really spoke to some of those stories — the fight against racism. faced by many newer Roma migrants and the huge history of cultural resistance they have gone through’.

He added: “There is a huge amount of cultural life in this community.

“Whatever other issues are faced, there is a music scene, there is a dance scene and so on. And really, we’re just trying to open up a little cultural space for people in these newer communities.”

A Flag Enough will be staged at the Moara Theater from 19:30 BST on Thursday.