Their Name is Joy

National Theatre - Dorfman

Part of the 2025 National Theatre Connections Programme

The young Asher and Joy play on stage as the audience begin to fill the seats, a powerful display of the children’s innocence even before the play starts. The children are distinctly separated into two groups, one that play gleefully and have their beds laid out for them and the other consider a change of clothes as a luxury. This is a story of refugees, separationism and inequality.   

The two distinct groups are visually distinguished by the clothes worn, with the majority of workers donning hi-vis jackets, except Asher and Joy. The story tells the local children’s privileges, playing in leisure and tricks on each other, and the only supposed rule is to not to go near the workers in the field. This all changed when Kelly, a local farmer’s daughter befriends Joy and learns more about the refugee workers. Even though this is an early piece of work, it has managed to develop a clear overarching message, exploring the harsh realities faced by displaced children and their families, especially how quickly they need to grow up and leave behind their vulnerability in face of prejudice and harsh conditions.

The connection between Kelly and Joy is superficial and unclear what is bringing the two together willingly over the course of the story. Given that this serves as the pivotal point to bring Kelly back to the workers time and again, there needs to be a strong emotional connection between the two characters, something that would create an impact for the audience, driving Kelly into action and stand up for her friend from her step brother, Saunders, and his friends.

Saunders and his friends play the role of antagonists, privileged and don’t understand the struggles of the refugee workers. Appreciating that young children act on instinct, it is easy to see why they attacked Joy the way they did. However, this quickly changed as they snuck into the workers’ quarter and were caught, giving the refugee children the opportunity to play a trick on the group of friends. This somehow spurs a change in the local children’s behaviour, prompting them to question the legality and morality of Saunders’s father’s actions, exploiting vulnerable children for his own gain. As the friends begin to turn on Saunders, Saunders made it obvious that they and their parents are also complicit and that nobody comes out clean in this ordeal. From a personal point of view, I would have welcomed a more meaningful interaction between the local and refugee children, deepening the kinship between the two to drive the change in the local children’s behaviour.

At the heart of the story, it challenges what we know about refugees, have we actually helped them, or simply taken advantage of them. The sinister nature of the farmer is somewhat downplayed and elements of the play suggests that it might have stemmed from a lack of understanding or willingness to understand the vulnerability of the refugee children rather than something more deliberate and evil. However, it is worth noting that the story, as it currently stands, does not fully commit to either. If it is the writer’s intention to keep this ambiguous, this is not currently coming through.

Their Name is Joy explore a pertinent and challenging topic and although there remains room for improvement, the current narrative serves as a solid foundation for further work to be built upon.

Written by May Sumbwanyambe

Performed by Nottingham Girls Academy Theatre Company

Photo credit: Foteini Christofilopoulou