Shay Mace
Blake Habermann is the Director of Dutch Kills Theater Company’s upcoming Edinburgh Festival Fringe piece Peregrinations. The piece aims to illuminate border crossings, exile, the search for belonging and the barriers imposed by others through puppetry and physical theatre, against the backdrop of rising global hostility towards immigrants. We caught up with Blake for a pixelated pint to find out more about the show, and what audiences can expect.
You can catch Peregrinations at Assembly Roxy (Central) from 11:25 (60mins) on August 6–18, 20–25. Tickets are Available Through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Shay: Hi Blake, tell us about the themes of migration and why you have decided to bring this to the stage now?
Blake: Across the global north, migrants are increasingly vilified, dehumanized and scapegoated, portrayed as the cause, rather than the victims, of larger social and economic problems. We wanted to re-center the solidarity, determination and ingenuity of migrants from a range of backgrounds by portraying their experience and struggles through compelling visual storytelling and magical realism, to hopefully bring about a profound identification with our shared desires for home, community and stability.
Shay: How has the creative process been of putting the show together? Give us an idea of the journey you’ve been on with it so far.
Blake: We began devising and researching the show in 2024, including interviews with migrants from a range of backgrounds and discussions with our cast members who have experienced borders in many forms. Our intention was always to distill these stories into their most potent mixture, then bring them to life through the larval mask, puppetry and original music.
Shay: What will be the first thing the audience sees, feels, and hears as they enter the space?
Blake: Our show opens with images of migratory birds, accompanied by our incredible original score, created live on stage. This opening image contrasts the expansive quality of animal migration with the often capricious and sometimes vicious conditions of humans attempting to cross arbitrary borders.
Shay: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
Blake: Our play is wordless, which we believe brings the audience beyond an intellectual understanding of the issue, offering a deeper sense of identification with the human challenges that migrants face and a visceral experience of the forces that drove them to these choices.
Shay: What journey has the show been on to find itself at EdFringe 2026?
Blake: The show has had a workshop at NACL in the summer of 2024 and then another workshop production at the Tank in New York in January of 2025. We realized with the reaction of our small audiences there that we needed to bring it to a larger audience and wanted to come to the fringe.
Shay: With EdFringe now just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
Blake: The fringe is the greatest gathering of theatre and performance artists on planet earth, an unparalleled opportunity to experience the magic of the stage and the warmth of those that create it. We can’t wait to wander the enchanting streets of Edinburgh, stumble upon something inspiring, connect over a drink with new friends, and make our work an offering to this celebration of theatre’s past, present and future.
Shay: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
Blake: I’d say our show is iced coffee, a perfect combination of two essential elements for life and art, but in the end a particularly American take on a global classic.
A reminder, you can catch Peregrinations at Assembly Roxy (Central) from 11:25 (60mins) on August 6–18, 20–25. Tickets are Available Through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
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