A play about the real life friendships between British people and asylum seekers is being performed at St Nicholas of Tolentino Church in Lawfords Gate this week.

Asylum Dialogues will be staged at the church on Thursday June 18 as part of national Refugee Week.

Before an unlikely friendship developed between John, a 66-year-old Birmingham accountant, and Angela, a 40-year-old Jamaican woman who cleaned his office, John admitted to believing the spin about asylum seekers.

He said: "I honestly used to say - send them all back home. They shouldn't be here. Taking all our money."

John even admits that he was considering voting for the BNP - and then he met Angela.

John and Angela's story is part of Asylum Dialogues, a documentary-style play performed by iceandfire's (c) outreach project, Actors for Human Rights.

The show will be touring seven cities across the UK during Refugee Week.

Each city is part of the national City of Sanctuary movement, which aims to build a culture of hospitality for people seeking sanctuary in Britain.

Asylum Dialogues, scripted by award-winning playwright Sonja Linden, is drawn from actual conversations and reveals the moving, funny and poignant relationships between British people and refugees who have fled violence and persecution in their own countries.

Actors for Human Rights is iceandfire's network of professional actors which stages documentary plays about human rights issues.

Their plays have been performed to over 15,000 people since the project's inception in 2006, and scripts include Asylum Monologues, Rendition Monologues, Palestine Monologues and The Illegals.

Juliet Stevenson, Sinead Cusack, Simon Callow, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Hayley Atwell, Thusitha Jayasundera and Louise Jameson are just some of the professional actors who support the network.

City of Sanctuary's goal is to create a network of towns and cities throughout the country that are proud to be places of safety. So far, ten cities have signed up to be part of the movement, including Bristol.

Father Richard Mckay from City of Sanctuary, said: "If you listened to certain media stories, you would be forgiven for thinking that nobody in the UK is willing to help asylum seekers and refugees through the difficulties they face here.

"Working with iceandfire to present Asylum Dialogues in Bristol will help us to tell alternative tales of solidarity and inspire local people to stand shoulder to shoulder with those seeking sanctuary here."

Christine Bacon, co-Artistic Director of iceandfire, says using actors allows the stories of asylum seekers and refugees to be told to people who may not otherwise get a chance to hear them.

She said: "As actors we can give faces and voices to the unseen and the unheard. We try to redress some of the misconceptions about asylum seekers and refugees with more accurate information and with personal stories that will appeal to many British audiences."

The show starts at 6pm.