Canadian Jennifer Irons has lived in the UK for 25 years, but when she’s told to ‘go home’ after the Brexit vote, she straps on her roller skates to try and prove her worth to the country she’s settled in.
Irons gets all our attention skating out in a sparkly magenta outfit, inspired by ‘Canada’s Sweetheart’ Elizabeth Manley who scooped silver at Calgary 1988. Since two criteria for remaining in the UK are ‘being rich’ and ‘being an elite sportsperson’, Irons decides to master skating. She buys expensive equipment and enlists the best instructors, but there’s more bumps and falls along the way than she expects…
Indeed, Irons does fall over several times unintentionally, but she always styles it out and encourages us to applaud her lack of injuries as is tradition in the skating world. Footage of her journey is projected onto a giant skate, including the Skatelove festival in Barcelona and some more surreal moments. I wasn’t expecting an Attenborough ‘cameo’ and some fish-based costume changes! It helps to break up the heavier material, on discovering undocumented asylum seekers and a moment of anger that haunts her.
It’s a deeply personal story, and Irons is far from perfect; one of the ways she now makes amends for past mistakes is the Skates4Mates initiative, a roller skating and dance project for displaced communities in the south of England. We’re treated to footage of some of the skaters as we leave, and it’s a truly heartening thing to see.
Bad Immigrant is a unique, bonkers journey through belonging, colonialism and identity; and who knows, it might make you want to dust off your old skates.
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Bad Immigrant is at Assembly Studio Two from 19-24 Aug.