'Fit For Purpose' was written by young playwright Catherine O’Shea, who has spent the last four years researching the experience that women go through in the asylum process, particularly when they are detained. It is a joint production by the Pleasance and End Child Detention Now.
Review so far have been excellent, with theatre magazine Three Weeks giving the play five stars, and describing it as 'an amazing theatrical experience’. Women caught up in the hunger strikes at Yarl's Wood The play tells the story of Aruna and Kaela, a Somali mother and daughter, who are detained in the notorious Yarl’s Wood centre, Bedfordshire, in January 2010. The same month, 50 female asylum seekers’ being held in Yarl’s Wood go on hunger strike to protest at the conditions they and their families are having to endure.
The strikes led to some of the women being moved to Holloway Prison, amid widespread uproar. O’Shea spent a lot of time with the All Africa Women’s Group, who took the issue to parliament, and acted as an inspiration for the women’s group that Aruna finds support from in the play.
Having previewed at London’s Pleasance Theatre last month, 'Fit For Purpose' will now be at Edinburgh’s Pleasance Courtyard from 3-29 August at 12.45pm each day.

The Scottish Refugee Council joins 'Fit for Purpose' panel discussion on Monday 15th August. The performance will be replaced by a free panel discussion on women in the asylum system. The panel will include Nina Murray, our women’s policy development officer, Margaret Woods from Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and Pinar Aksu, now 19, who was detained in Yarl’s Wood with her family for two months in 2007.  Pinar said: ‘Events like this are beneficial because people can get to know what I’ve been through. It’s easier to grasp what detention is like if you can see it in a play, or hear about it in a panel discussion like this one.’

Read Catherine O’Shea’s blog about the issues behind 'Fit for Purpose' on the Our Kingdom website.  Book tickets via the Fringe website