AN estimated nine million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011 and that number is still rising.

Inspired by the theme of migration, second-year students on the Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance degree course at the University of York have created three distinct yet unified pieces of documentary theatre.

Created from the verbatim words of more than 100 interviews with the public, politicians, policy makers, charities, the media and asylum seekers, each half-hour play presents the facts in the politically charged show 9 Million And Counting.

The plays will be performed in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television's Black Box Studio on the Heslington East Campus from Thursday to Saturday at 7.30pm.

In Where The Heart Is, a child drifts through a battlefield of suspicion, absorbing the words they hear. Another waits at the door with a story about home; something everyone wants but not everyone has. Will you listen?

The Swarm is set in the midst of a media storm in a piece based on the search to identify the voices of the overheard and unheard, which challenges the culture of accepting the media's portrayal of the refugee crisis.

The world is presented with a complex moral dilemma in You Were Saying?, wherein you are asked "What can the individual do in response to a global crisis?".

Tickets cost £5, with 50 per cent of each ticket sold going to Refugee Action York, an organisation that works with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from within and around the City of York. Box office: store.york.ac.uk; tickets can be collected on the door.