MIGRATION IS UNIVERSAL (Satis Shroff)

MIGRATION IS UNIVERSAL (Satis Shroff)

The urge towards mobility, whether on one's own decision or political supression, has existed ever since the advent of human beings in this world. People from different ethnicity have been fleeing, travelling, moving, migrating, establishing settlements, colonies, ghettos in foreign shores. Migration has a big effect on the identity of the person depending whether he or she feels at home in the new country's social, political and geographical environment.

Freiburg's theatre will be staging the effects and consequences of migration in the identities of the people. The collective title of these projects is: who decides who's allowed to live here? The Freiburger theatre is staging a weekend (27^th and 28^th of March 2015) to the following themes: migration, residence-permits, intercultural encounters and identity.

'Volkerwanderung' is a living melange of stories about the beginning of journeys, being underway and settling down, and is staged by Turbo Pascal and Element 3. 'Mixed Doubles' on the other hand, is a tete-a-tete of political initiatives, refugees and citizens. 25 specialists invite people to a 10 minute talk under four eyes. In these talks transitory wisdom or knowledge is communicated on such themes onstage such as: holiday pirates, crossing the border, law counselling on stay-permits and the right to live in a country one has chosen, sms-campaigne, st-blockade on expulsion of refugees, personal knowledge from a world full of ignorance. There's even an import-export jam session with the Heim & Flucht Orchestra where you can take part as a musician. There's also the Unwritten Story, a talk show with the manager of the Berliner Festspiele and Viola Hasselberg. The two will be talking about the Austrian writer Peter Handke's play 'Immer noch Sturm.' This play deals with Handke's family and migration story. As a grandchild, son and nephew, he recalls a fictive account. Since Handke didn't have a resistance-fighter in his family, he uses a Slovenian mother and a German soldier's son who's in the Wehrmacht, in his story. He makes his uncle,who participates in the war as a partisan, do gruesome things as a commander. In this play a good many actors with Slovenian roots play authentic roles.

Another interesting theme bears the title 'Sprach Babylon Jelinek, which is a lecture performance in which Vienna refugees translate Jelinek's play ' Die Schutzbefohlenen' in their own mother-tongues.

'Common Ground' is a piece directed by Yael Ronen from the Maxim Gorki Theatre. The young Berlin actors are the descendants of victims and perpetrators of the Balkan War in the former Yugoslavia and the piece begins in the post-war period and the encounters of the protagonists thereafter. The actors come from Belgrade, Sarajevo, Novi Sad and Prijedor.

'We are Germany' and 'Volkerwanderung' search for the roots in Freiburg's Littenweiler. 'Wir sind Deutschland' is about a refugee home in the Hammerschmied street in Freiburg.

'Du bist Balla' (You're Crazy) is a play with Mely Kinyak and Thomas Wodianka who converse avout the TV-show by Sandra Maischberger in 2012 who asked the question: 'The Salafists are coming-- does this Islam belong to Germanny.' It might bbe mentioned that in recent times the Pegida movement has told the world in no uncertain terms that they are against the Islamisation of Germany, especially in the wake of the war in Syria and the atrocities of the IS.

Much like Aischylos' Die Schutzflehenden' evokes the ancient theme of pleas for refuge in an alien community and culture, which developed into the fundamental idea of a home for asylum seekers. It is the acceptance on the part of the citizens that is essential for the functioning of traditional and modern societies.

Even in Freiburg, you can see this incessant coming and going away due to the cultural, geographic, commercial and historical proximity to France and Switzerland.

The contemporary questions on migration, safety and asylum in Europe and Freiburg bring together the historical perspective of migration as an anthropological constant. This is evident in every historical epoche and region, and has been described and documented not only in Europe but all over the world.

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The Price of Freedom (Satis Shroff)

From North Africa to Sicily,

Province Ragusa's the destination.

Young swarthy men

Approach the Lybian harbour,

To board a trawler.

Smiles, nervous laughter

Fill the Mediterranean air.

Their what-the-hell attitude,

Provokes a victory sign,

With two outspread fingers.

We shall succeed,

Is the message to the world.

Fortress Europe,

We're coming,

Whether we'll make it

Or break it,

Is the question.

In mid sea the people in the boat

Begin to have their doubts.

They are obliged to leave the trawler,

To enter a small wooden boat.

'Bbut why?' utters a young man.

'We've paid for the passage to Italy.'

The sea adventure begins.

There's water everywhere,

No land in sight.

The sea become choppy,

People get sea-sick,

In the crowded all-male boat.

When a ship comes by,

The people shout for help,

With hoarse, dried-up voices,

In broken Italian.

The boat comes almost alongside.

Thank God, it's a rescue boat.

The hearts race and spirits soar.

In the last moment,

The boat with the refugees

Capsizes and overturns.

Panic breaks out

Among the men in the water.

What follows is a watery burial,

Despite swimming-jackets.

Most of them can't swim

Bacause they're exhausted

And dehydrated.

The refugee corpses are fished out

By the Italian crew of the rescue ship.

'Mama mia!' says a fisherwoman,

As she shakes her head in horror

And disbelief.

Freedom has its price.