In favour of poetic engagement in public space

Flight, exile, asylum, welcome culture, quota, borders, border surveillance, deportation. These words have taken over our everyday lives for several years now. Images of war, overcrowded rubber dinghies on the Mediterranean, people on the run, exhausted faces in European railway stations have become an integral part of our lives. And then? What happens to the people who have come to us? How can their faces and stories be brought out of anonymity?
And how much space are we, Europeans, prepared to give them? TheatreFragile has met refugees and helpers and collected their stories in order to place their voices at the centre of the dramatic action. Using poetic mask theatre and a multi-layered collage of voices, the complex topic of exile is made accessible to a wide audience in a sensual and interactive way.

Participation as a central approach

Through interviews, mask play workshops and interventions in public space, actors from civil society are involved in the creation process.
During the performances, they form part of the ensemble as mask players. A fictional space emerges in which skin colour, national and social origin and language fade into the background. There is a well-rehearsed ensemble for guest performances and tours or the production can be adapted to the venue through a research and rehearsal phase with a local amateur ensemble on site.

Team

Wir treffen uns im Paradies is a production by TheatreFragile under the artistic direction of Luzie Ackers and Marianne Cornil.

Performers - Marianne Cornil / Nicole Ratjen & Luzie Ackers / Zeljko Marovic & Workshop Ensemble
Masks - Luzie Ackers
Interviews, sound collage -Marianne Cornil
Music, composition - Janko Hanushewsky & Eva Pöppelein, Merzouga
Dramaturgy - Laurence Barbassetti
Mask play Coach - Dana Schmidt
Set design, lighting - Werner Wallner
Make-up - Luzie Ackers & Nicole Ratjen
Costume - Manon Gignoux
Installation - Janna Schaar
Video, film documentation - Anna-Maria Schneider
Media technology - Florian Mönks
Direction Workshop Ensemble - Marianne Cornil
Production - Henrike Beran
Accounting - Doren Gräfendorf
Public Relations - Laurence Barbassetti & Marianne Cornil
Graphics - Silke Meyer
Photo - Walter Meutzner

Premiere of the new version 14 May 2016 in Detmold as part of the European Street Theatre Festival "Bildstörung".

Premiere of the first version in August 2008 as part of the puppet and street theatre festival La Strada in Graz (Austria), as an IN SITU production. IN SITU was financed with the support of the European Commission (Culture 2000).

Press reviews

"At the beginning there was a concentrated silence. At the end, in the same place, a cheerful hustle and bustle with music, dancing, curious explorations and conversations. Soon there was not only a queue at the soup stall, but laughter and conversations with friends and strangers filled the marketplace. And many a person wished that this lightness was not only possible at the end of a theatre play, but also in everyday life."

"In the beginning, the audience had to be invited individually by gesture to explore the market, but shortly afterwards the children stormed the square and more and more adults also conquered the stage. Soon there was not only a queue at the soup stall, but the marketplace was also filled with laughter and conversations with friends and strangers."

"Personal reports that touched the heart with their concise statements and made people think."

2016 Westfälischer Anzeiger, Hamm, D

"After an initially quiet beginning, this extraordinary play develops into a rather colourful play that involves the audience as more and more actors join in. What begins seriously ends with one or two surprises that harbour many a black box. In the end, "Wir treffen uns im Paradies" fills one with optimism."

"What seems exaggerated is actually reality," the refugees testify. "I want to show the Germans what really happens when you have to flee," Walaa reports from Syria. That's why she decided to take part in "Wir treffen uns im Paradies"."

2016 City press review, Ahlen, D

"Stories that get under your skin and words that trigger a strong sense of consternation in the audience.
In fact, it doesn't take much to convey the situation to the audience. A crate and a few buckets as props are enough.
And before you know it, you're suddenly standing on stage yourself and are handed a plate of warm soup and recipes from all over the world. You could call it hands-on integration."

2016 Westfalen-Blatt, Bielefeld, D

"It was a great, impressive and, for me, touching and also very lively production. A really great realisation of a difficult topic in a public space. My great admiration."

"Your performance at the Welttheater der Straße with "Wir treffen uns im Paradies" was terrific. Dealing with such a serious, touching topic, captivating the audience - despite the "light fare" offered all around - and then celebrating life with the enthusiastic audience at the end, that was brilliant."

2016 Schwerte, Audience reactions, D

"The multinational TheatreFragile, which is also active in Sri Lanka through the European network INSITU, presents a humane utopia with "Wir treffen uns im Paradies". Grey figures emerge from a black box. Anxious people seeking a home quietly ask for asylum and invite people in for warm soup. Poetic, delicate scenes with many small and touching details that gain additional colour and warmth in the nocturnal atmosphere. High street art."

2008 Die Kleine Zeitung Graz, AU

"At TheatreFragile, exiles bring familiar shores to their new home in buckets. TheatreFragile tackles the problem of migration and integration. Two people without facial features emerge from a black box, try to gain a foothold as quietly as possible and yet do not remain undiscovered. The trepidation of a life in exile is thematised in a poetic way, without giving up hope of common ground."

2008 Die Kronenzeitung Graz, AU

"The favourite of many street theatre connoisseurs was TheatreFragile. It told the story of migrants very sensitively, almost tenderly."

2009 Täglicher Anzeiger, Holzminden, D

"It was magnificent how Berlin's Theatre Fragile turned the palpable "fear of the stranger" into a cheerful, multicultural encounter with its migration story."

2009 Die Glocke, Gütersloh, D