Theater vérité: How ‘The Jungle’ re-creates a refugee encampment

For the next month, when ticket holders enter St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York, they won’t see a conventional stage with rows, arcs, or circles of chairs. Just a vast tent. 

It’s the setting for “The Jungle,” an immersive theater production. The tent is a makeshift restaurant inside a refugee camp. There’s dirt underfoot. Long tables with benches for seating and ketchup at every place setting await audience members. Ushers guide them to their places via the set’s kitchen area, which includes a dusting of flour that is more than just a prop. 

“Some lucky people get some freshly made naan,” says Naomi Webb, executive director of , the British company that created the show, opening Feb. 18. “It depends on where you sit.”