April 13, 2022

PROJECT BACKGROUND

SUMMARY

The Expanding Theater Landscapes project brings together theater artists from Norway, Italy, and Bosnia to create three performances under the question: How to talk about refugees from a European theater scene today? Through devising and collaborative processes, the theater artists and refugees will develop and play the three performances on both sides of the EU’s border wall.

BACKGROUND

In the spring of 2022, Sarajevo War Theater, Teatro Nuovo in Pisa, and Para Film & Teater in Oslo received a grant from Creative Europe for the “Expanding Theater Landscapes” project. This is, therefore, a Bosnian-Italian-Norwegian theater project that started in September 2022, with a planned premiere in spring 2024.

Theater artists from these countries will enter refugee camps in Bosnia to work with refugees on the project’s development. This will result in three performances, one from each of the three countries, forming a trilogy. They will be played separately in their countries of origin, but also together in Sarajevo. It is also possible that they will be played together elsewhere, both in the three countries and at festivals.

 

Work on the three performances starts in Bosnia. This is a country that has been characterized by refugees for centuries. The struggle between East and West, European powers, and the Ottoman Empire remains. During the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s, large parts of the inhabitants were internally displaced, and some flew to other European countries. And today, Bosnia is one of the most used transit countries to the EU, whether the refugees come from Asia, Africa, or South America.