UK crises of hospitality, feminism, and democracy are as acute as ever despite ostensible commitment to the values that foster them. This article examines David Greig’s 2016 Edinburgh version of Aeschylus’s Suppliants as it attempts to expand spaces of democracy into the theatre, and investigates the foundations of democratic institutions. Drawing on Achille Mbembe’s formulation of necropolitics and Elaine Scarry’s theorization of civilization, it highlights necrocivilizational elements in the production’s premise and reception. It argues that Greig’s presentation of Aeschylus’s play presents a more complex engagement with western democracy, asylum, theatre, and civilization than commentators have acknowledged. Rather than primarily opening up new spaces of negotiation among asylum-seekers and citizens in the community, The Suppliant Women foregrounds the exclusionary discursive tactics operating under the auspices of civilization that leave the logics underpinning the UK’s asylum policy largely untroubled. Sarah Stewart is an independent researcher whose work centres on the relationships forged between asylum-seekers, members of the theatre establishment, and citizen communities within and beyond the performance space. She holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh.

This article aims at positioning the agency of the displaced within the longue durée, as it is exposed in contexts of hospitality and asylum, by articulating its key modes: contingent, willed and compelled. Using the ancient world as its starting point, the article exposes the duplicity in conceiving of the current condition of displacement as transient or exceptional. As such, it argues for the urgent need of a shift in the perception of displaced persons from that of impotent victims to potent agents, and to engage with the new forms of exceptional politics which their circumstances engender.

The majority of refugees and communities exposed to warfare and oppression live in low-income countries with few resources or special skills. Yet, epidemiological studies have identified high levels of traumatic stress reactions in such populations. These stress reactions can be intensified by harsh policies aimed at deterring survivors from seeking refuge in technologically advanced societies. The scale of the problem of mass violence and displacement creates formidable challenges for mental health professionals in their efforts to develop practical frameworks for responding to the extensive needs of displaced persons. In this article, a model is proposed for low-income, post-conflict countries, based on a two-tiered formulation. At the eco-social level, mental health professionals can play a supportive, but not a lead, role in facilitating recovery of core adaptive systems that hasten natural recovery from stress for the majority of the population. Where small-scale, community mental health services are established, the emphasis should be on assisting persons and their families who are at greatest survival and adaptive risk. Training and promotion of local workers to assume leadership in such programs are essential. In technologically advanced societies in which refugees are in a minority, torture and trauma services can focus more specifically on traumatic stress reactions, acculturation, and resettlement. In a historical epoch in which displaced persons are facing particularly harsh treatment, there is a pressing need for consensus amongst mental health professionals in advocating for their needs.