Design

What a Theater Means to a Refugee Camp

Lessons from the founders of the Good Chance Theatre, a temporary performing arts venue at the Calais “Jungle.”
Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson speak with The Atlantic's Ron Brownstein at the CityLab 2016 summit in Miami.C2 Photography

MIAMI—For nearly half a year, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson operated the best-known performing-arts venue in Calais, France. The theater drew A-list stars such as Jude Law and Benedict Cumberbatch to the notorious site known as “the Jungle.”

It might come as a surprise that a refugee camp had any sort of theater, much less one that garnered marquee performances. But the ad-hoc camp at Calais is a much more vital place than outsiders know, according to Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, who opened the Good Chance Theatre in Calais from October 2015 to March of this year.