Co-produced by Curious Industries and Dumbworld, this ambitious multimedia production follows a real-life mother and daughter on a road trip from Donegal to southern Italy as they weave personal stories with the testimonies of Italian immigrants in Northern Ireland. Blending live performance, electronic music, and archival video, the piece encounters modern-day migrants and activists along the route to deliver a poignant meditation on inheritance, migration, and identity.
Would you mind giving us an insight into what your show/event/performance is?
In ALIENS we join a real-life mother and daughter on a road trip from Donegal to southern Italy, weaving their personal stories with those of Italian immigrants in Northern Ireland and present-day migrants, activists and strangers met along the way. Blending performance, video and live music, the show explores what it means to live between countries, generations and identities, a meditation on inheritance, migration, and those who live in between: the aliens.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
Italian filmmaker Alessandra Celesia, whose documentary The Flats won Best Film at CPH:DOX 2024 and Best Irish Documentary at IFTA 2025, spent a decade interviewing the descendants of those Italian families living in Northern Ireland. When her daughter Marta, born in Belfast and raised between France and Italy, started asking her own questions about rising nationalism in Europe, they decided to make the show together. On stage: two women at a cluttered tech table triggering footage, archive testimonies and field recordings in real time, with a live electronic score performed by Giovanni Corgiat Mecio. Both trained at the Jacques Lecoq school in Paris. The show is directed by Emily Mytton, veteran of Punchdrunk, the National Theatre and RSC, with video editing by Piero Oronzo, lighting design by Rocco Andreacchio, and subtitles by Elisabetta Scarin.
How does it feel coming to (back to) the Fringe?
Marta: I spent five Augusts working front of house during EdFringe, so there’s something quite full-circle about coming back this time with a show of my own on the other side of it. And of course, being back means I’m already planning how many shows I can squeeze in around our own, there’s nowhere else in the world you get this much brilliant work in one place, all at once.
With shows from all over the world at the Fringe, what sets yours apart?
What sets ALIENS apart is that it’s an actual mother and daughter, on stage, telling a real story. It’s a theatre-road movie: a live documentary built from genuine interviews, real archive footage, and a real relationship. We think this brings a unique rawness to our show. The show also moves between English, French and Italian, the three languages of our lives, with integrated subtitles, which is pretty cool and unusual !
On that, is there anything in the production or production team’s backgrounds which influences the way the show is performed or told?
Alessandra’s years as a documentary filmmaker bring a particular skill to the show: a capacity to find the truth in a person and connect with them, which shapes how the interviews and archive material are handled on stage, nothing is invented, everything comes from real conversations. And because it genuinely is mother and daughter up there, there’s a vulnerability and rawness to the dialogue that would be hard to fake. The line between real life and the show blurs, both in the documentary sense of drawing on real testimony, and in the sense that the relationship the audience is watching unfold in front of them is the real one.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
Marta: Some people have told me they wanted to call their mum as soon as the show was done, so either that, or wanting to start a revolution, would also be great. Beyond that, we’d love people to leave thinking differently about the word “alien” itself, to remember it was once stamped on ordinary people running ice cream shops and chip counters, and to notice how easily that same language comes back around.
Your Ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t…?
Marta: Our ideal audience is the person who’s never quite felt like they belonged fully anywhere, the child of an immigrant, someone in a relationship that crosses a divide their family didn’t approve of, anyone who’s had to explain where they’re “really” from at a dinner party. And honestly, we’d love a few Home Office politicians in the room too, might knock some sense into them. Who isn’t there? honestly anyone is welcome, maybe not my ex..
It’s an intense month, so where you’re able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?
Alessandra: Going to the sea always helps me relax when I can but also just seeing shows, honestly. It takes you out of the hustle and bustle and you get transported for an hour somewhere else. All the other shows at ZOO look really exciting, and the Clown Show with our friend Jeff Soebell is going to be amazing, I think!
Aliens will run at Venue 82, Main House at ZOO Southside
Runs: August 18th – August 30th at 16.20pm
Photo credit – Diego Pallu and Jim Corr
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