NEWS: Welcome to the Jungle @ ARC

Image: Umar Butt

Welcome To The Jungle is a brand new show from Stockton-based writer, director and actor, Umar Butt. Exploring issues around identity, migration, belonging, family and community, Welcome To The Jungle is an epic, intensely personal tale of how two strangers came to meet each other in the middle of the night, on an empty bridge.

Umar hopes that the story will help us all find connection with each other and celebrate our differences. “I am so excited to bring this story into people’s lives. We’re telling a global story about connection and family, but one that is very much grounded in Teesside. It’s about you and your neighbour as much as it is about global issues that we’re facing. But while dealing with those issues, it will be fun, and exciting, and full of warmth and heart.”

Umar has worked with ARC since 2018 and he aims to use his position as an Associate Artist of ARC to develop work for people of colour. As a first-generation migrant, born in Pakistan, brought up in Glasgow and now an honorary Teessider, Umar is passionate about exploring, learning and sharing global human stories of belonging, family, community and displacement but closer to home.

Welcome To The Jungle takes place at ARC, Stockton on Tuesday 20^th and Wednesday 21^st September.