The two performances of Britannicus were held on July 1 and July 2. The actors are all students at the Pierre Claver school, which provides language classes and cultural and sports activities for refugees.

The play tells the story of the Roman Emperor Nero and his grisly plot to assassinate his adopted brother, Britannicus. Nero is played by Montasser Idhhiba, a 24-year-old Libyan, who came to France in 2014. In real life, Montasser is far from a tyrant and is, instead, gentle and soft-spoken. He spoke to InfoMigrants about how the experience working on this play touched him deeply.

"I had never really done theatre before. I didn’t know [playwright] Jean Racine but the script really helped me improve my French-language skills. This fall, I am going to try to take acting classes or join a troupe.

When we first started working on the play, we watched a film of Britannicus from around 2010-2011. I realized that there was no way that I could play the role in the same way as the actor in the film, so I realized that I needed to come up with my own way.

'Nero kind of made me think of Gaddafi'

The play makes me think of Libya, my home country, but also of Syria and Afghanistan. Whenever we worked on a new scene and understood what was happening, it always made me and the other actors think about what happened in our own countries.

Nero makes me think of [former Libyan dictator] Muammar Gaddafi, but I think he also represents all tyrants. In fact, as actors, we all felt that this story was applicable to our own experience, wherever we come from. Racine speaks about humanity, not just one situation in particular.

When I was onstage, I was one hundred percent in character, but, sometimes, I also thought about my family. We want to inhabit the character that we are playing but sometimes, when acting, we also sometimes channel things that we ourselves have experienced.  

'We wanted to show other people that they shouldn’t be afraid of trying something new'

But we enjoyed ourselves. We really found joy and pleasure in acting. Our aim, as young refugees, was to show people who are struggling that they shouldn’t give up, they shouldn’t be afraid of trying something new. We wanted to be a source of inspiration for other people.

Currently, I am working as a waiter at a restaurant called Léon de Bruxelles, which I’ve started to call Néron de Bruxelles [Néron is the French version of Nero]. I am still taking classes at the Pierre Claver school. I started going there in September 2015 and it really changed my life. When I go, I spend time with the other young people who participated in the play. We spend time together and we help each other if needed.

I often spend time with the actor who played Britannicus. His name is Tofan Dulat Zay and he’s Afghan. He also loved performing in this play.

We spent a lot of time rehearsing together. Our favorite was scene VII of Act III. The actors in that scene are him, me and Junie. While we were rehearsing, any time that I saw him, I would call out, “Prince, continue your beautiful words” and he would always respond in kind.

I was quite sad when it all finished. But I am proud of the troupe and all that we experienced and all that we did. I’m proud of the message we shared with people."