Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee – temple at C-ARTS

It’s Apsaras Dance Company’s first time in Edinburgh and this was their first performance of Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee. Coming all the way from Singapore to share this beautiful piece of dance theatre with Scottish and International audiences.

Agathi intends to destigmatise the refugee experience and calls for empathy and understanding. Inspired by the book of poems by refugee children as well as specific lived experiences, the show explores displacement, various people’s stories and the dangers refugees often have to deal with. Some of the Voice-overs and monologues are in English and during the songs in Tamil, surtitles of the translations are screened to make it fully understandable. The traditional Indian Bharatanatyam dance is choreographed beautifully and although the more theatre scenes are less refined, they do make the show more accessible to a Western audience.

The scenes were a little too on the nose and lacked dimension. It’s almost like a simplified version of a reality that has so many facets. This could be because the poems the show is based off of were written by kids, or it could just be a cultural difference in how storytelling is approached. Considering the heavy topic, this made Agathi easier to digest than expected.

Still, it’s certainly worth watching. The dancers are incredibly skilled and look like they’re having fun. Their rhythmic Indian dance and professional costumes truly take you to a different part of the world and an hour and 20 minutes go by quickly with something enjoyable to watch!

Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee runs until the 30th of August at temple at C-ARTS with tickets available at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/agathi-the-plight-of-the-refugee

Reviewer: Christina Schmidt

Reviewed: 25th August 2026

North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating: