DESIRE MAPS is a map-making performance about migration, memory and speculative futures for three actors and eight audience volunteers.

Using projected live illustration and multi-surface video design, the performance invites audiences to retrace the geographical journeys of their ancestors. 

In front of a live audience, eight audience volunteers are invited to move on stage alongside the performers, responding to headphone instructions and mapping their personal histories in space. An on-stage illustrator documents these journeys in real time, creating a shifting, collective map of past and present.

Through this act of speculative cartography, DESIRE MAPS explores migration, memory, and the potential for imagination to rewrite both our past and our future.

DESIRE MAPS is available for touring from late 2026 onwards.

DESIRE MAPS premiered as part of the TalentLAB Festival at Les Théâtres de la Ville du Luxembourg on May 31st 2026. The project is a co-production between PROJEKT EUROPA and TDLV, supported by Farnham Maltings and the Centre for Performance, Technology, and Equity at CSSD.

The initial development phase of this project was supported by the National Theatre’s Generate Programme. Subsequent development was supported by Brighton Festival, Farnham Maltings, Goldsmith’s University, and PTEQ at CSSAD.

video by Rocio Chacon, photography by Serena Betti and Matthew Coulton