Ahead of Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta playing in Oxford, we caught up with the show's creator and performer, Edith Alibec.

Daily Info: Please can you tell us how this play came about?

Edith Alibec: I lived in Germany for three years, and when, in the first few months, I did not find my place, I started to idealise a "home". Romania, my home country, became more like a utopia. At the same time, the refugee crisis in Germany grew and I wondered how it must feel for them.

I had known of the book Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta by Aglaja Veteranyi for a while then, but phrases like "I know my country only by smell. It smells like my mother's cooking" started to resonate deeply with me. Also, the fact that the book is based on the real-life story of the author made me feel the urge to tell it.

I also was able to play in it in German, as a Romanian, exactly like the author. She was a Romanian who wrote a book in German.

DI: Why is this such an important time to tell this story?

EA: I don't know if it's now an important time to tell it or if it's always an important time to tell it. People fleeing or refugee crises are things that take place for quite a while now. In this context, it's important for people to see how it feels to be displaced, to feel like an outsider, to feel like you don't belong and you are not wanted. I hope that can generate more empathy towards people that find themselves in these kind of unfortunate situations.

Also, I think that the play has a broader appeal - people moving countries willingly or people who just feel like they're outsiders. That's a universal feeling and anyone will resonate with that.

DI: What has been your most magical moment in bringing it to the stage?

EA: When one of the people closest to the author came to the show in Zurich and said we captured her spirit exactly.