Bad Immigrant
2024 Creator & performer
It's a roller disco about immigration. Obvs.
Post-Brexit, UK immigrant Jennifer, is told “go home.”
But Canada doesn’t want her either.
So, she straps on skates, embarks on a hilarious and chaotic quest, asking: why can’t we all just belong?
Photo credit: Rosie PowellJennifer Irons, a UK immigrant from Canada, is told after Brexit to "go home". But she hasn't lived there in 25 years, and the kicker: Canada doesn't want her either.
Apparently, she's too old, too broke and not sporty enough?
Channeling her childhood hero, 'Canada's sweetheart' Elizabeth Manley, Jennifer straps on roller skates and dives helmet-first into a glittering world of freewheeling misfits.
With German techno, dancing salmon and absurd humour, award-winning choreographer and dancer Jennifer embarks on a chaotic, darkly surreal quest through colonialism, identity and the search for belonging.
This show is creative captioned.
Book now
Friday 4 July - South East Dance - Preview
Come & see Jen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Monday 18 - Sunday 24 August, 15:35
All photo credits: Zoe Manders
‘Bad Immigrant is one that every person owes to themselves to go and see.’ ★★★★
Watch the trailer
Listen up!
You’ve seen the show, you loved the music. Now listen at home!
‘Incredible. I've never seen a live show that made me cry and laugh in the same breath.
Very relevant to the current climate, with an important message people need to hear.’
— Audience quote
Skates4Mates
Jennifer Irons is fundraising to support displaced people living on the South Coast by building community through roller skating. People who arrive in this country often face a hostile environment, far from home, placed in hotels without any community.
That's where Skates4Mates comes in. Skates4Mates is a global community of skaters who want to share their love of skating. We believe in the inherent benefits of immigration and aim to change the rhetoric of anti-immigration and support displaced people by building community by sharing our love of skating.
Nominated for the European Creativity for Social Change Award 2025
Creative team
Conceived, written, and performed - Jennifer Irons
Director - Tom Roden
Dramaturg - Lou Cope
Sound design and original music - Stewart Baxter
Lighting - Lucy Hansom
Design - Nicolai Hart Hansen
Projection Design - Harshini J. Karunaratne
Captions Operator - Harshini J. Karunaratne, Raph Lambrakis-Haddad
Production Manager - Simon Booth
Roller skating Coaches - Danielle Taylor and Frankie J. Plague
Creative Collaborators - Sophie Passmore and Majid Dhana
Research Consultant - Dr. Martha Newson and Dario Brentin
Project Producers - Lisa Wolfe, Madeleine Wilson
Tour Producer - Natalie Richardson
Photo Credits - Rosie Powell, Zoe Mander
Film Credits - Rosie Powell, Zach Walker, Raph Lambrakis-Haddad
Marketing - Andrea Edwards
Social Media - 3amEnergy
Design - Tom Partridge
PR - SFP Communications
Evaluation - Kirsten Hutton
Thank you’s
Simon Harriyot and the Branding Needs Work, BK Workshop July 2024, Above Your Nerve and Gemma Leader, Haley McGee, Sophie Powell, Abigail Dooley, Emma Edwards, Ed Kilroy, Léonie Moffat Seaman, Felicia Wong, Mitchell Christie, Tim Casson, Brighton Skate Crew, Portsmouth Skate Crew, the Sky Walkers, Skates4Mates Rollerskate Crew, Dani Ross.
