UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration through Education, Language and Arts

This episode is a recording of Ramon Ayres and Alison Ribeiro de Menezes' keynote presentation at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School 2025.

Abstract:
How can we tell stories of impossible suffering without losing hope? What potential can theatre offer to build empathy and connection, and to buttress memory? In this talk we discuss the development of REWIND, Ephemeral Ensemble’s award-winning production inspired by testimonies of refugees whose lives were affected by dictatorship in the 70s in Latin America and young adult migrants affected by human rights abuses in Latin America in 2019-2021. We explore how embodied theatre-making can take us beyond the rational and help to push aside arguments that impede peace-building. We propose a ‘dramaturgy of care’ that promotes connectedness, exchange, and mutual respect. Inspired by our concern for each other, for a caring relationship to society, and a vision of a better future, our work aims to see future potential in relatedness, and to build each from our unique positions to a shared vision of hope.

Ramon Ayres is the director of Ephemeral Ensemble, a multi award winning, Global Majority and Migrant-led theatre collective. Their work has been acclaimed in 3 continents and named by The Guardian as having one of the best theatre shows of 2024, Ephemeral Ensemble makes unique work that smashes together raw physicality, electrifying original music and scorching visuals to craft a narrative that hits hard and sparks imagination. Inspired by fact-based stories, their work spotlights urgent social issues, and is created in collaboration with global communities to empower a narrative of care.

Alison Ribeiro de Menezes is founding Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Warwick and Deputy Chair (Research) of the Faculty of Arts. Her research focuses on cultural memory in Spain and Latin America. She is PI on the AHRC-funded project, ‘Voices of Humanitarianism: British Responses to Refugees from Chile’. She is also currently completing a monograph on Poetics of Disappearance: Embodied Memory Work (which includes a chapter on Ephemeral Ensemble’s REWIND, for which she acted as advisor). Alison continues to collaborate with Ephemeral Ensemble on new work on memory and sustainability and to think about ways to use physical theatre to develop a dramaturgy of care.

This episode was edited by Catherine McGrath.

For more information about the Spring School please visit: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco…ents/springschool/

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First published: 23 September 2026