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| Culture<br />
Theatre can happen anywhere<br />
with Foreign Affairs<br />
Formed 10 years ago and based in De Beauvoir<br />
Town, Foreign Affairs Theatre Company is<br />
the brainchild of actors Camila França, who is<br />
Brazilian/Portuguese, and Trine Garrett, who is<br />
Danish. Along with a multinational ensemble of<br />
theatre professionals, they bring award-winning<br />
world drama to English-speaking audiences, with<br />
an eye to exploring topical social and political<br />
issues.<br />
The organisation came about when, after<br />
completing drama school, it soon became<br />
apparent that their ethnicity meant they were<br />
quite often excluded from roles they would have<br />
relished. As Camila puts it, “I will always be seen as<br />
‘the Spanish maid.’”<br />
Refusing to accept defeat, they decided to create<br />
their own opportunities and brought together<br />
4 LOVEEAST<br />
a group of like-minded contemporaries to put<br />
on a production at The Lord Napier in Hackney<br />
Wick, which, at the time, was nothing more than<br />
a derelict squat. That performance expanded to<br />
more productions and soon people were asking<br />
when their next show was.<br />
Theatre beyond borders<br />
Camila and Trine are passionate about what they<br />
do and, for them, it’s about inclusion, building a<br />
sense of community and connecting people, in<br />
addition to being able to produce and perform.<br />
They are all about crossing boundaries and<br />
breaking down barriers – of culture, of language<br />
and of the performance space itself.<br />
Their productions won’t be found in traditional<br />
theatres, instead they choose a DIY approach by<br />
inhabiting unconventional spaces and, to-date,
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