This Autumn Hayley Doherty will be performing in A Seventh Man at the Orangery Theatre in Cologne’s Volksgarten as part of the Theaterszene Europa Festival. Directed by Michael Pinchbeck and Ollie Smith, Hayley also developed the piece.

The immersive performance was inspired by the groundbreaking book on migration “A seventh Man” published in 1975 by author John Berger and photographer Jean Mohr. The production is partly adaptation and partly documentation, uses literal interviews and photographs and explores and blows up the book on the occasion of its anniversary to prove that it is more relevant today than ever before. The story follows migrant workers who leave their homeland and cross borders, ask themselves questions about their work and undergo medical tests to check their ability to work. Three performers re-enact the texts of the book and bring to life the portrait of a generation of young men crossing a continent in search of a better life.

The spectators meet performers who press suitcases into their hands and lead them into a shed-like construction that becomes a truck, a train, a border guard and a bossy factory. This immersive and fragmented adaptation, like the book itself, revolves around a dream: The existence of migrant workers in the 21st century.

A Seventh Man runs from 25th to 29th September.