Giving Compass' Take:

• A video created by the International Rescue Committee (in partnership with the Globe Theater in London) highlights a speech believed to have been written by Shakespeare in which a character pleads for humanity toward immigrants.

• The connection to our current time is clear: We must find a way to create more humane refugee policies, but the work will need to go beyond advocacy. 

• Want to be part of the solution? Here's how to open your home to refugees.

Actors from “Harry Potter”, “Game of Thrones”, and “Sex in the City” have joined together with refugees to perform a rallying cry in defense of a compassionate refugee policy.

In a short film, created to mark World Refugee Day, the actors and refugees perform a previously banned speech widely believed to have been written by William Shakespeare, from the collaborative 16th-century play “Sir Thomas More”.

And even though it’s over 400 years old, it literally couldn't be more relevant today.

The speech, known as the “Stranger’s Case”, sees the character Sir Thomas More trying to quell an anti-immigrant riot by appealing to the rioters’ humanity.

At the time the play was written in the 1590s, London was seeing an increase in refugees and migrants arriving to seek a new life, according to theInternational Rescue Committee (IRC), which has collaborated with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London to create the film. Then, they were refugees fleeing religious oppression in the Netherlands and France. You can watch the film here:

Read the full article about the actors using a Shakespeare speech to call for more humane refugee policies by Imogen Calderwood at Global Citizen.