Touching stories of real-life friendships between asylum seekers and British people are coming to Newcastle this month.

Asylum Dialogues, scripted by award-winning playwright Sonja Linden, is drawn from actual conversations which reveal the moving, funny and poignant relationships between British people and refugees who have fled war and persecution.

John Catley, an accountant from Wolverhampton, whose story features in the play said: “I honestly used to say - send 'em all home. They shouldn't be here. It's an English country. They take all our money. Then this woman turned up to clean my office and turned the world upside down.”

Asylum Dialogues is the brainchild of iceandfire theatre company’s national outreach project Actors for Human Rights, which tours documentary plays about human rights issues around the UK. So far their plays have been performed to over 13,000 people.

BAFTA-nominated actress Juliet Stevenson has performed with Actors for Human Rights:

She said: We regularly hear about the terrible hostility that asylum seekers and refugees face. But we rarely hear the stories of British people who are standing shoulder to shoulder with those seeking sanctuary in the UK. Asylum Dialogues tells these inspirational stories and shows how small gestures of welcome can make a big difference."

Sinead Cusack, Simon Callow, Dan Stevens (The Line of Beauty), Kwame Kwei-Armah, Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited), Thusitha Jayasundera (The Bill) and Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street) are just some of the other professional actors that support the network.

Sandy Buchan, chief executive of Refugee Action said: "Given the way that issues around asylum are reported, you’d be forgiven for thinking that nobody in the UK would be willing to help asylum seekers and refugees through the difficulties they face. Asylum Dialogues demonstrates that if you scratch the surface, you will actually find countless examples of solidarity and humanitarianism."

Christine Bacon, the Director of Actors for Human Rights, said: “As actors we can give faces and voices to the unseen and the unheard. We try to redress some of the misconceptions about asylum seekers and refugees with more accurate information and with personal stories that will appeal to many British audiences.”

 Bookings:        FREE, no booking required