At the Opening Plenary of the Conference, just after speech of the Key Note Speaker - Radhika Coomaraswamy, The Certificate interrupted the proceedings with a series of questions it put to the 300 people gathered. The people at the plenary were confused by the interruption caused by The Certificate. They did not expect it. They didn’t know if The Certificate was a performance or a real event. Some of them didn’t believe The Certificate was a performance even after the event. So this is the simple story of this little monologue The Certificate, and how it struggled to get its identity. The people that the play is about – stateless people – struggle with having to prove their identity and their existence within a system that denies them nationality but then also insists, that in order to be acknowledged and treated as a human being, one needs to have a nationality. So though many people saw The Certificate – there was still some confusion about its existence. 14