Jennifer Irons is Bad Immigrant
Connaught Theatre Worthing
13th February 2025
Bad Immigrant is a deeply personal, eye-opening exploration of identity, immigration and belonging, told through the medium of comedy, roller-skating and autobiographical stories. What’s not to love?
Jennifer Irons takes the audience on a whimsical, eight-wheeled journey inspired by life after Brexit, her life’s journey to be specific, particularly after the moment a friendly neighbour tells her to “go back to where she came from”.
Having lived in England for 25 years and and knowing that many in her position need a special Visa to return to Canada that can only be acquired by very rich people or elite athletes, she finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place. Where does she belong? Where is she now welcome? How do other immigrants cope with this treatment by society when she is… “one of the ‘good’ ones”. A phrase carefully used to describe her better treatment from other Brits because of her white skin and assumptions about her stereotypically friendly Canadian culture. If she is being shunned by the UK population who voted to Leave, how are the other ‘bad’ immigrants being treated?
Quite a heavy subject matter indeed, which is why Jennifer’s show is dressed as a glitter ball roller disco, sprinkled with humour, songs, dance and playfulness. She builds a deep connection with her audience by bravely opening up about her experiences whilst being able to make people smile and laugh, all the while slowly highlighting the dark treatments of, not immigrants, but people. Just some of the playfulness you can expect includes a hilarious catchy number ‘Hypocrites Get On My Tits’, a mesmerising fish dance voiced, unquestionably, by David Attenborough, and a mum ruthlessly battling against toddlers to be the best skater at the ‘Skater-Tots’ Saturday morning class.
In a path that was always destined to fail because of unrealistic standards, Jennifer takes up the quest of becoming a world-class roller-skater to win a global competition hosted at the O2… within a single year. Inspired by her childhood skating Canadian idol, she is doing everything she can to win it to be classed as this so-called elite athlete. A huge task that ultimately doesn’t work out the way she planned, but that was never the point.
What Jennifer discovers along the journey of training is a special sense of community through roller-skating. She would visit other countries alone and be welcomed by all different ages, genders, races… people. Purely joined by the love of the same hobby. And this transpired back ‘home’ in the UK as people spoke to her differently when roller-skating, making room for her and even describing her as ‘cool’. A reminder that we are all joined together by things we love regardless of our background. We live for joy and shared experiences, and the message it would seem is that working together is the best solution to live in harmony.
On the subject of shared experiences, Bad Immigrant is one that every person owes to themselves to go and see. It might make you feel a little uncomfortable, but that’s the point of things that challenge us in all of the right ways. I left feeling inspired, moved and educated in ways I wish I had considered a long time ago, while enjoying more than a few laughs along the way.
Reviewer: Stephen Sheldrake
Photo credit: Zoe Manders