April 13, 2022

THE STARTING POINT OF THE PROJECT

The inspiration for the project is taken from Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author.” When Luigi Pirandello wrote the play in 1921, he portrayed a type of character whose voice would not usually be heard in the theater to take the lead role. As a result, the theater manager, the director, and the actors in the play almost end up like a Greek chorus, trying to listen to and understand the voice of the underprivileged.

Today, “Six Characters” is a classic. It is perhaps difficult to imagine how controversial it was and why the playwright had to escape the theater via an emergency exit to avoid a lynch mob at the premiere in Rome. One hundred years later, we are used to a politically and socially engaged theater that speaks on the underprivilege’s behalf. We are used to the theater as a preacher who instills in us general, bourgeois, and mildly left-wing radical ideas.  

But what happens if we try to confront the theatre’s role as a preacher and public informer of today? If we, as Pirandello did with “Six Characters,” dare to risk our own position and ideas about what theater is? What if we use the theater’s tools against itself to try to let something else come to light?


In the project, we will find a way to incorporate the refugees into the performances on stage and in working with the plays. This process will vary for the three ensembles, reflecting both them and the countries they come from. When the pieces are set up, we will bring these refugees into the Europe they are trying to reach, with the possibility of obtaining a residence permit. This means that the performances will also have a purely activist side: Namely, moving a selection of refugees into the countries they have long been trying to reach.