THE MATERIAL OF THE PERFORMANCE
The actors from the three participating countries will be invited to refugee camps in Bosnia to get to know those who stay there. Over the course of a few weeks, they will familiarize themselves with the structure of the centers, understand daily life, and get close to the individual people. This work is led by the directors and dramaturgs in the project in collaboration with the management of the refugee camps.
While research is carried out on the refugees’ lives and the actors develop relationships with them, we want the actors to continuously reflect on their own role and position in meeting the refugees in text, audio, and video recordings. This material will form the basis for the theater performances, which will be worked on in collaboration with the actors but with actively involved playwrights and dramaturgs from various countries.
One of the performances probably will be based on the escape route through Bosnia towards Croatia’s borders, which is mined and full of border police. The refugees call the attempt to cross the border “The Game.” A second performance probably will be based in Blazuj Camp, a refugee camp for men only. All men who are single and over the age of 18 end up here. Crime, drugs, and a lot of noise abound in these camps, and here we find the type of refugee who is perhaps the least wanted: young men without education and without family.
In the third part of the project, we will examine the issue of the good and well-intentioned Westerners who wish refugees all the best and confront this with the refugees’ image of themselves. As the last part of the trilogy, this performance is intended to have a meta-perspective on issues related to the refugee problem and the three performances themselves.
The research will, therefore, not only be about how the privileged white actors see the refugees but also how the refugees see them. How they understand and interpret what the actors are doing, and what their goal really is. Therefore, we want a deconstruction of our motives for the performance and a breakdown of our work process and methods.
While research is carried out on the refugees’ lives and the actors develop relationships with them, we want the actors to continuously reflect on their own role and position in meeting the refugees in text, audio, and video recordings. This material will form the basis for the theater performances, which will be worked on in collaboration with the actors but with actively involved playwrights and dramaturgs from various countries.
The initiating research will first be linked to the “character” refugee. What kind of role is she being pushed into, and what role does she want? But also the character “the artist who creates a performance about the refugee.” She has chosen this role voluntarily, but why, and for what purpose?
These investigations occur in refugee camps in Bosnia, where the work between refugees and actors is moderated and documented along the way. In these camps, a solid infrastructure exists for collaboration with local forces, including artistic ones. Everything is supposedly in place to facilitate such cooperation and find refugees to work with. The process will have to start with a “casting,” where we are openly looking for someone who will not only contribute with information and real-life stories but also has the desire to share and be on stage.
In this dialogue, exchanging ideas and images about the other will be essential. In concrete terms, a conversation can be like this: How does the actor imagine the refugee’s life a day ago, a week ago, a month, or a year ago? What did she wear, what did she eat, who did she meet, and how did she talk to those she met? And then let the refugee draw the same picture of the actor. Then to orient both to reality.
Through examining oneself and each other, we uncover the idea of the other’s life. Both about what we think about what the refugees are escaping from and their dreams. These images will form the fundamental component of the performance. Here, it is not only conversations, memories, and monologues that are thought to be used but also situations, video recordings, music, and songs.