CONNECTING COMMUNITIES

THE DOMES

The foundations of Good Chance were created in our temporary Theatres of Hope, built in areas with high populations of displaced people, safe and open spaces for expression and connection with local communities.

“I found friends at Good Chance, who made me feel that there is still humanity in the world... I am just looking for dignity, peace, happiness and humanity. I just want to live like everybody else in this world.”

- Mohammed, in the Good Chance Dome in Paris

A new kind of theatre emerges in Calais.

Good Chance built its first Dome Theatre in ‘the Jungle’ refugee and migrant camp in Calais in September 2015. It was a unique space of introductions and welcome where people could express themselves safely, share stories, cultural traditions and art. At its foundation were the beliefs that expression is a human right, and of the vital role of art in humanitarian crises.

The theatre became a civic and cultural centre of the Jungle, and one of the one of the only places in the camp welcoming people from all nationalities, genders, backgrounds and religions. A daily and eclectic programme of artistic workshops and performances was curated and lead by camp residents alongside visiting artists and theatre companies from around the world. Artistic styles and traditions as varied as Eritrean circus, French opera, Chilean theatre, Sudanese drumming, Kurdish Kung Fu and Iranian stand-up comedy (to name a few) met and fused in extraordinary ways, always resulting in something new. Every week culminated in a Saturday night ‘Hope Show’, which played to packed audiences (and which was even broadcast on BBC News at 10 on Boxing Day!)

After the eviction and demolition of the camp by the French authorities in 2016, Good Chance moved the dome to Paris, where many of the camp’s resident were taken, and where many more people were newly arriving. It continued to offer a space for welcome and expression in different locations around the city until 2019.

Since then, the Dome has appeared in cities across the UK and US for shorter festival style events to celebrate cultures, explore ideas of welcome and spark new conversations about how we live together.

From Calais, we were invited to talk across the world on the role of arts in humanitarian crises at over 75 major events and conferences, including One Young World Summit in Bogota, UNHCR at the Royal Opera House in London and with David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), at the 2016 Global Exchange in New York, on the eve of the UN Global Assembly.

“A varied programme of music, drama, poetry, movement and debate, for and by the inhabitants of the camp, occupies the Good Chance theatre six days a week. All by itself it proclaims that life without culture is nothing but biology in survival mode.”

- Sir Tom Stoppard in The Sunday Times

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FRIENDS WHO SHARED THIS STORY WITH THE WORLD

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DOME THEATRES OF HOPE

35k+

PARTICIPANTS & AUDIENCES
FROM OVER 40 COUNTRIES

London Review of Books - A day in the life of Good Chance Paris

The Times - The boy grabs for my jacket as his friend pulls out a knife by A A Gill

The Times - The Calais Jungle is a dump but in it I found music, poetry and humanity by Tom Stoppard

The Ground Truth Project - ‘[The Dome] is a place where we can forget, and where we can feel like we’re not alone.’

More Press

“I really thank the people who organise this great theatre. And we will know many things by it. For example, different cultures, different people with different minds and language. So it doesn’t matter what you look like, you can just be the best version of yourself.”

- Resident of the Calais Jungle

“I love Good Chance, as soon as I enter the dome I get happy. It is my favourite place in Paris. What they are doing is very important to us because we have been through a lot on the way to Paris, so we need these kinds of things to help relieve our stress.” - Abdul, Good Chance Paris

“The refugee who sits alone, he does not just need food, or some materials, he needs also hope. Good Chance Theatre gives hope. You need to feel you are not alone, you need to feel someone sits beside you, he cares about you.” - Youssef, Good Chance Paris

Calais

September 2015 - October 2016
Our first dome ’Theatre of Hope’, built with residents of the Calais Jungle refugee camp, quickly became a groundbreaking, globally recognised space for artistic collaboration between residents, visiting international artists and local people. At its foundation was the belief that expression is a human right.
Offering a daily programme of workshops, events and performances, the dome also served as an intermediary between the camp and the outside world, using art to deepen the wider public’s understanding of the people who lived there.
Each Saturday, the theatre would stage ‘Hope Shows’, bringing together work made throughout the week performed to audiences from the camp, as well as to international audiences through major broadcasts like BBC News at Ten.
London

July 2016 - August 2016
Encampment took over the Southbank for nine days and nights inside the original Calais Dome, with a programme of free performances and discussions united artists and audiences from the UK, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Cameroon, Guinea and many other countries. The theatre was run by a mighty volunteer team of former Jungle residents, now building new lives in Britain.
Paris

May 2017 - August 2019
We built Domes in six locations across Paris welcoming refugees, migrants and French citizens experiencing homelessness, and worked with thousands of residents, local people and artists to create a bold and exciting programme of theatre, puppetry, music, art, dance, carpentry and design. Every week culminated in a carnivalesque Hope Show, devised and performed by the residents for local audiences.
New York

December 2017 - January 2019
& February - March 2023
The original Calais Dome travelled to New York with The Jungle at St Ann’s Warehouse, a living exhibit of the Dome in the Jungle and the people who left their marks on the walls and their artworks for future visitors. Hosting talks and concerts and participatory crafts, audiences were invited to reflect and share their responses to the production and its origins in the Dome, many leaving messages of support for those making journeys for a new and safe start today.
Coventry

June 2019
The original Good Chance Dome appeared in Coventry, celebrating the culmination of World Refugee Week in the centre of the UK’s 2021 City of Culture celebrations.
Dome in a Day saw locals collaborate with displaced artists to co-create a programme of puppetry, circus, singing, drumming and poetry - all in a single day.
Sheffield

February 2020
FreeDome was a four day festival of performances, workshops and creative events which brought together artists and audiences from Sheffield and around the world. An invitation to create a new global community in the centre of the city in just four days, culminating in an evocative premier performance of the Change the Word Sheffield poets.