The exiled character in need of asylum is a recurrent theme in ancient Greek tragedy. For example

12 Pages·2016·0.44 MB·English

15
NordicTheatreStudies
Vol.28,No.1,2016,15–26
The exiled character in need of asylum is a recurrent theme in ancient Greek tragedy. In many of these
plays, we see uprooted and homeless persons seeking sanctuary, and for the ancient Greeks, hospitality
was an important issue. Many of these plays have been updated to comment on the current social and
political conditions of refugees. In Hamburg a group of 80 asylum seekers who came to Germany via
Lampedusa found refuge in St Pauli church, and it was there that Nicholas Stemann presented a first
reading of Elfriede Jelinkek’s play Die Schutzbefohlenen in September 2013. Recently right-wing groups
have mounted weekly marches through Dresden to call for a halt to immigration, and these have been
contested by simultaneous counter-demonstrations in favour of immigrants and refugees. In this paper
I will consider several adaptations of Greek tragedy that highlight cultural encounters between the local
population and those arriving from abroad who are looking for asylum. In particular I will examine
Stemann’s production that has been running at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg since September 2014,
and features asylum seekers from Lampedusa on stage who beg the audience for the right to remain in
Germany.
Keywords:DieSchutzbefohlenen,refugees,Jelinek,Stemann,TheSuppliants
The exiled character in need of asylum is a to provide her with sanctuary in Athens before
recurrent theme in ancient Greek tragedy. For she wreaks vengeance on Jason. In Oedipus at
example, Medea, Orestes, the Children of Colonus, Oedipus is a stateless person, having been
Herakles, Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonus, and the exiled from Thebes. Guided by his daughter
daughters of Danaos in Aeschylus’ The Antigone, he asks King Theseus for sanctuary in
Suppliants all seek asylum. In Aeschylus’ The the outskirts of Athens, and succeeds in finding a
Suppliants, the fifty daughters of Danaos arrive in final resting place. It is interesting that in this case
Argos from overseas, fleeing from the sons of he provides a kind of sanctuary for Athens in
Aegyptus, and ask King Pelasgos for protection. return for being granted one; by allowing Oedipus
Likewise, the Children of Herakles seek safety in to be buried in Colonus, Theseus ensures that
Athens from Eurystheus who is determined to kill Athens will be protected in the future. The play
them. After Creon tells her that she must leave thereby emphasizes the potential benefit of
Corinth immediately, Medea, who refers to looking after asylum-seekers.
herself as “apolis” or stateless, persuades Aegeus In these plays, we see uprooted and homeless
16
Cultural Encounters in Modern Productions of Greek Tragedy
persons seeking sanctuary, and the obligation of mothers were parading in the Plaza de Mayo,
hospitality or xenia is revealed as an important calling on the state to divulge the whereabouts of
responsibility for the ancient Athenians.1 Thus, their disappearedchildren.
the problem of asylum is an ancient one, both in In Janusz Glowacki's Antigone in New York
the theatre and in real life. Some of these plays (staged at the Arena Stage4 in Washington, D.C. in
have been updated in recent years to comment on 1993), Anita, the Antigone figure, tries to reclaim
the plight of today’s refugees and often to reflect the body of Paulie, her dead lover, who has been
on the concept of hospitality, a social duty, which removed by the authorities to be buried in an
both Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida unmarked grave. A homeless immigrant from
consideredto be fundamental to ethics.2 Puerto Rico, Anita wants to bury him in a
In this paper, I will show how German theatres Manhattan public park where she lives. As both a
responded to the current immigration crisis by homeless person and an immigrant, her legal and
presenting productions about refugees and by ontological status is ill defined. Her friend Sasha
becoming politically active as institutions. I will tells her: ‘We have to get indoors. When you live
examine the production of Elfriede Jelinek’s Die outdoors no one thinks you are a person’ (72).
Schutzbefohlenen (directed by Nicolas Stemann) as Moreover, because it is dark when her friends
an emblematic case study of a play that used an retrieve the body and mistake another corpse for
ancient Greek drama as a pretext to comment on Paulie’s, Anita ends up ironically burying someone
the crisis, calling attention to the tension between else instead of her lover in the park. Eventually,
law and justice, between citizenship and human the police close down the park, erecting a ten-foot
rights, andbetween finite andinfinite hospitality. high barbed wire fence around it, and rendering
her status even more insecure. Anita hangs herself
on the main gate of the park after trying
unsuccessfully to climb over the fence to return to
Before considering this specific case study, I’ll Paulie's grave. The authorities take her to be
look briefly at some other adaptations of Greek buried in an unmarked grave, sadly rejected by
tragedies that deal with refugees. Like Die civil society.5
Schutzbefohlenen, many adaptations use the original Likewise, Euripides’ Medea has been adapted to
text as a starting point, retaining some of the address the lifestyle and circumstances of
structural elements of the narrative and perhaps nomadic people. Marina Carr’s By the Bog of
the character’s names, but often straying so far Cats… (1998) transposed the play to the Irish
from the original that it seems like a completely midlands with the Medea character, represented
new script. For example, the plight of Antigone by Hester Swane, a member of the ostracized
can serve as a useful means for calling attention to Travelling Community. The Travelling
the position of the stateless person, and several Community in Ireland, like the Roma in other
dramatists have used this character as a starting parts of Europe, adopt lifestyles that do not
point for an original script focusing on the coincide with the private property obligations of
socially excluded or the Other in society. The the capitalist system. In order to maintain the
philosopher Hegel regarded Antigone as an rights of a citizen in the nation-state, one must
“internal enemy”,3 opposing the legitimate role of provide an address, “a fixed abode”. Having no
the state, and in that sense she can be regarded as “fixed abode” reduces one virtually to the status
a stateless person. An example of this can be seen of the refugee. Thus, those who choose a
in the emotionally charged versions of Antigone, nomadic lifestyle are frequently deprived of
such as the very much transformed Antígona human rights by the exclusionary policies of
Furiosa by Griselda Gambaro, featured in the governments and by the hostility of local
Argentinian theatre in the 1970s and 1980s, when residents. In Marina Carr’s version, the structure
opponents of the state were disappearing and of the ancient Greek play is retained but the
17
Nordic Theatre Studies
names are changed and many new scenes, front page of the newspaper Die Zeit with a
characters, and back stories are added so that it slogan that seemed to sum up the somewhat
seems like a new play. Hester Swain, the Medea hostile but wavering attitude of the German
figure, is evicted from her home by her partner’s government towards refugees: “We don’t want
father, Zavier Cassidy. But unlike in the original, them to drown. We don’t want them to come
there is no Aegeus character who will provide her here. What do we want to do?”8 In August 2015,
with a place of exile. Threatened with social Angela Merkel reversed the government policy by
exclusion and the dispossession of her young opening the borders to refugees (especially
daughter, she takes her own life as well as that of Syrians).
her child. There were also protests and occupations of
In the theatre season 2014-2015 Greek public spaces by the asylum seekers themselves,
tragedies about refugees and their adaptations expressing their anger at the conditions in which
carried all the more resonance as the world was they were forced to live. For example, in Austria a
experiencing, according to António Guterres, the group of about sixty refugees (who had migrated
United Nations’ High Commissioner for from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and
Refugees, “the highest levels of forced were being confined in the Traiskirchen camp
displacement in recorded history.”6 The increased outside Vienna) occupied the famous Votiv
number of refugees had been partially caused by church in the middle of Vienna in the winter of
the situation in Syria and Iraq with fifteen million 2012-13 and some of them went on hunger strike.
people being displaced, of whom four million In Germany, a large number of asylum seekers
Syrians had been living in refugee camps in marched to Berlin from various cities around the
surrounding countries. Many of these had begun country to occupy the central square at the
to lose hope that they would ever be able to Brandenburg Gate before being allowed to
return to their native land and looked to Europe establish a tent community and inhabit a disused
as a possible home, with Greece alone receiving school amidst the immigrant community of
more than half a million people in 2015, ten times Kreuzberg. In Hamburg, a group of about eighty
as many as in the previous year, and with asylum seekers, many of whom had come to
Germany suddenly opening its borders to them. Germany via Lampedusa, found refuge in St Pauli
The problem of asylum, of course, was not a church. Protest camps were created in many other
new issue in Europe, with demonstrations for and German cities, such as Dortmund and Munich,
against immigration having occured in European and riots sometimes erupted in the overcrowded
countries for years. Right-wing activists in many refugee facilities, such as in Suhl in August 2015.
countries continued to voice their opposition to
immigration, especially in Central and Eastern
Europe, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and
Britain. In Germany in 2014 and 2015, a group There was a strong pro-immigration movement in
called Pegida (an acronym which stands for Germany that may also have influenced the
“Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of change in government policy. One of the leaders
the West”)7 mounted weekly marches through in the campaign in Berlin to welcome refugees
Dresden against immigration. In addition, was Shermyn Langhoff, a Turkish immigrant who
German refugee shelters were subjected to over had founded the Theater at Ballhaus
200 arson and other attacks. The German Naunynstrasse where she featured post-migrant
government initially took a hard line on refugees, theatre, and later became Intendant of the Maxim
requiring them, under the Dublin regulation, to Gorki theatre, where she presented a series of
return to the country that had been their first port productions featuring immigration. Moreover,
of entry in Europe. In April 2015, a photo of a when asylum seekers were being threatened with
capsized boat of immigrants appeared on the eviction from a school they were occupying in
18
Cultural Encounters in Modern Productions of Greek Tragedy
Kreuzberg in 2014, Langhoff offered housing to immigrant. Also in the 2014-15 season, the
some of them at the Gorki and sent an appeal to Theater Bremen hosted a season called "In
the other major theatres in Berlin to help. She also Transit" during which it organised over fifty
sent an open letter (which was also signed by the events about refugees. Thus, the state and
major German theatre directors, choreographers, municipal-funded theatres and the theatre
actors and musicians including Claus Peymann, community played an important role in the
Thomas Ostermeier, René Pollesch, Sacha Waltz, ongoing debate about the conditions of and
etc.) to the German government and others in support for asylum seekers in Germany.
authority to intercede on behalf of the asylum Moreover, some of the major German theatres in
seekers. In November 2014, at the time of Berlin including the Gorki, the Schaubühne, the
celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall Theater an der Parkaue, the Ballhaus
of the Berlin wall, the Gorki theatre was used as a Naunynstrasse, the GRIPS Theater, and the
rallying point for a controversial bus trip to Deutsches Theater joined with other activist
Bulgaria organised by an activist group called groups to form a coalition called "My Right is
"The Center for Political Beauty" who were Your Right" and organised protests and
protesting against the erection of a new wall in demonstrations to influence German government
Bulgaria, on the Eastern border of the EU, to policy that may have encouraged Merkel’s change
stop immigration. of heart.
A further factor was the number of pro- Nevertheless, despite the large number of
immigration plays that appeared in the theatres’ deaths and human tragedies (including over 3000
repertories. Perhaps the most noteworthy was drownings in the Mediterranean, member
Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Schutzbefohlenen. Nicolas countries of the European Union continued to
Stemann, who was employed by the Thalia disagree about the responsibility for housing new
Theatre in Hamburg, held a first reading of immigrants and asylum seekers. By contrast with
Jelinek’s play in September 2013 at St. Pauli Germany welcoming refugees in August 2015,
church in Hamburg in front of a group of various EU states were constructing new barriers
Lampedusa refugees who had been given to keep them out, such as Spain’s heightened
sanctuary in the church. The play was then security border fence in Melilla, Bulgaria’s 100
presented at the Theater der Welt festival in mile fence with Turkey, Hungary’s fence along its
Mannheim and the Holland Festival in borders with Serbia and Croatia, and Britain’s
Amsterdam before finally opening at the Thalia enhanced Channel Tunnel defenses. Some
Theatre in Hamburg in September 2014. It was countries such as Hungary closed their borders;
then invited to open the prestigious others (such as Macedonia) announced states of
Theatertreffen in Berlin in May 2015. The emergency or prohibited specific kinds of
decision by the Theatertreffen in Berlin to invite immigrants (Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Stemann’s production to open its theatre festival announced that they would refuse to admit
was apparently taken on political as well as artistic Muslims). In May 2015, the British government,
grounds, notably as a result of the increasing in opposing a European Union quota system for
importance given to the refugee question by the receiving refugees, focussed on stopping the
theatre community. influx rather than on the welfare of the migrants,
The Theatertreffen in 2015 (as well as the and proposed that the EU organise military
Theater der Welt in 2014) not only featured attacks on the boats that were transporting them
Jelinek’s play but also hosted debates about and use “all means to destroy the business model
refugees, and also commemorated the work of of the traffickers… deploying helicopter gunships
Rainer Fassbinder, whose 1970s film Angst Essen to ‘neutralise’ identified traffickers’ ships.”9 Later,
Seele Auf (‘Fear Eats the Soul’) depicts community the British government suggested military action
discord when a German woman marries a Turkish in Syria as a way of addressing the issue (although
Nordic Theatre Studies 19
the additional bombings of Syria by various of the performance, the young refugees sat on
countries at the time of writing this essay in stage as silent witnesses and symbolic presences
October 2015 only seemed to exacerbate the flow while professional actors spoke and acted the
of refugees).10 lines of the play. Sellars premiered this production
However, with the rapid increase of refugees in the Ruhr Triennale in 2002 and performed it in
arriving in Europe from the Middle East in the various cities afterwards in Europe as well as the
summer of 2015 and the horrifying images of USA, usually accompanied by a panel discussion
their journeys appearing on television and in the as a way of engaging the audience in the debate
newspapers every day, the issue of immigration over the issue. When Sellars performed it in
was brought into everyone’s living room. The Vienna in 2004, he presented it in the ceremonial
outpouring of sympathy from ordinary citizens in hall of the Austrian Parliament in the presence of
various European countries in the aftermath of politicians with youths from the local refugee
the pictures of a small Syrian boy washed up on a camp of Traiskirchen (outside Vienna)
beach in Turkey, indicated that the issue had participating in the production. The participants
finally touched a nerve with the general public in on the panel prior to the performance included
Europe, with many people offering space in their the hard-line Austrian Minister of the Interior
homes and providing supplies. Government Ernst Strasser. One reporter commented, "As is
responses to the crisis vacillated on a daily basis in to be expected, Strasser entrenches behind a
reaction to pressure from the public and civic frozen smile and empty rhetoric (“We need to act
leaders, as well as to demands from right-wing on this”); the dialogue Sellars hoped to encourage
leaders to stop the flow of refugees, and with the does not happen. After the panel discussion,
calls from the European Commission President [actors] in uniforms of the U.S. Army declaim
and the German Chancellor to share Euripides’s text in a highly melodramatic manner,
responsibility for the refugees across the EU. while Strasser sits in the auditorium passing his
time writing text messages. The children of
Herakles (silent parts) are embodied by young
people from Traiskirchen. The audience is
One particularly interesting aspect of Stemann’s probably moved most by the fact that these actors
production of Die Schutzbefohlenen was that it have to return to the camp after the performance;
featured asylum seekers on the stage, so it is that way the event may convey more [aspects of]
important to consider the nature of this unusual the political reality [of the refugees] than it
cultural encounter, namely the impact and affect intended."11 A theatre critic responded, "[O]ne
on a theatre audience of a play about asylum quickly sees what Sellars is getting at: it has to do
seekers that is transformed into a performance with the laws of hospitality; in the conditions of
with and by asylum seekers. Stemann’s was not the ethics and law; in homelessness as a dire and
first production of a Greek tragedy that included fundamental state of being; and in ‘audiatur et
asylum seekers on the German stage. For altera pars’ (‘listen to the other side’) – listening to
example, Peter Sellars also featured asylum seekers the weak ‘other’ of power, i.e. those who do not
in a production of The Children of Herakles which have the means to make their voices heard. Peter
was staged at the time of the American invasion Sellars […] wants to give a stage and a voice to
of Iraq. In the original Greek play, the children of those who suffer most from the wealth gap and
Herakles and Iolaus, their guardian, are in danger from globalization."12
of being killed, and plead for sanctuary. In his
touring production, which was reasonably faithful
to the original Greek tragedy, Sellars included Elfriede Jelinek based her play Die Schutzbefohlenen
asylum seekers or refugees living in the local areas on Aeschylus’ The Suppliants in which fifty women,
in which the play was staged. However, for most who describe themselves as “the dark race”, have
20
Cultural Encounters in Modern Productions of Greek Tragedy
crossed the Mediterranean from Egypt and arrive references and current political issues, a
in Argos to ask for asylum from fifty men, the postmodern bricolage of images. The text is quite
sons of King Aegyptus, who have been chasing playful, parodying governmental and popular
them. Pelasgos, the King of Argos, after attitudes about immigration and ethnicity, and
deliberating over the consequences of protecting calling attention to Austrian political problems
them and asking his subjects’ approval, agrees to such as the unequal treatment of immigrants. For
shelter them. And so the tragedy ends happily, example, it comments on Boris Yeltsin’s daughter
but with the ongoing fear of a possible attack. and the famous opera singer Anna Netrebko both
Jelinek uses the original Greek play as little more being granted citizenship with little fuss while
than a pretext for her version, which aims to asylum seekers have to undergo a lengthy ordeal
address the current refugee crisis. Little remains of bureaucratic paperwork and documentation in
of the original other than some intertextual links a foreign language. It also refers to the dangers
and allusions and the representation of vulnerable for specific refugees who have fled from war-torn
and powerless immigrants coming to a foreign countries and whose families have been
land and asking for asylum. Jelinek relates the slaughtered, and the difficulty of providing
Greek tragedy to the plight of the refugees who evidence to the Austrian authorities that will
had arrived from the Pakistan/Afghanistan convince them that they require protection.
border and had been detained in the Traiskirschen Jelinek’s text also plays with the role of the church
camp outside of Vienna. In the winter of 2012- authorities and their relationship with government
13, they marched to Vienna and occupied the authorities, and mixes these with ancient Greek
Votiv Church, demanding improved conditions gods who can decide their fortune. Likewise, it
such as the right to work and for their children to conflates images of church sanctuary with
attend school, and some of them went on hunger national asylum. It also interpolates other ancient
strike. Like the women in The Suppliants, who Greek references and Aeschylean images into the
plead, “Please help us; our feet have stepped onto text such as the Io and Europa myths, with many
your shores but where do we go from here?” playful and pointed allusions to cows and gadflies.
Jelinek’s play depicts the refugees seeking asylum The refugees compare themselves to Io, as they
from the Austrian government and indicating the are treated as less than human, “half-human, not
threat to their lives and the hazards of returning human at all.”14
home: The play text also parodies an Austrian
“We came on our own, to your church, a government document welcoming foreigners
train of supplicants, please help us, God, called “Coexistence in Austria”, which states that
please help us, we set foot on your shore, “everyone is equal in dignity,” and that urges
our foot also stepped on quite different foreigners to adopt the Austrian values of
shores, when it was lucky, but how will it freedom and democracy (which also resound as
go from here? The sea almost destroyed European values). The play contrasts these values
us, the mountains almost destroyed us, with the conditions of the refugees and, among
now we are in the church, tomorrow we other things, comments on a passage that
will be in the monastery... but where will provides an analogy about Austrians swimming
we be the day after tomorrow and after competitively and appreciating each other’s
that?”13 efforts. The play text wryly comments, "What’s
Jelinek’s version is not structured like the original with swimming? A neck-to neck race? So that we
ancient Greek text and has no characters or can express our mutual respect afterwards?...Why
divisions of roles. It reads like a long rambling do we have to get into the water for that? Yes,
monologue or like a choral diatribe (sometimes in some of us are getting out of the water, where,
the first person singular and sometimes in the first accidentally, they did not starve to death, die of
person plural), heavily nuanced with classical thirst or drown. But they don’t want to get back
21
Nordic Theatre Studies
into it."15 The title, Die Schutzbefohlenen, is all, there andhere.”18
somewhat subversive in that it means “those who As the performance progesses, it incorporates
are under protection or control”, rather than musical numbers that add a humorous touch to
“those seeking protection”.16 Thus its meaning is counterpoint the harrowing images projected on
ambivalent as to whether it implies that the the back screen of refugees struggling to survive
government is protecting the refugees or simply on perilous Mediterranean voyages, dead bodies
controlling them. lying in rows on beaches, and children’s coffins
As in Heiner Müller’s play Despoiled Shore Medea- decorated with teddy bears. The production
material Landscape with Argonauts, which is a cleverly conflates the occupation of the church in
meandering monologue interlinking personal and Vienna with the situation of the asylum seekers
political concerns with the figure of Medea and who received sanctuary in a church in Hamburg
contains no stage directions, Jelinek’s text gives after a disastrous journey from Libya. This is
little indication as to how it should be directed reemphasized by a huge crucifix descending onto
and contains no distinction of roles that centre stage that resonates with the refugees’
individual actors might play. She leaves it to the experiences in gaining kirchenasyl, or asylum in a
theatre director to decide how to allocate church, as a temporary measure. The
speeches and create characters on stage. While performance offers an opportunity for the
Stemann’s appears to have been the first stage refugees to address the audience and state their
version of the play, it was shortly thereafter need for asylum, raising awareness amongst the
directed in very different ways in at least two audience of the individual plight and vulnerability
other productions, one by Mirko Borscht at the of refugees in a more direct way than the media
Theater Bremen in 2014 that was conceived as an can. As in Levinas’s discussion of the ethics of
attack on local politics and another by Michael hospitality, this encounter compels an affective
Thalheimer at the Burg Theater in Vienna in 2015 and ethical response from the audience. Thus, the
that was set in a watery landscape and presented production evokes a sense of moral responsibility
as a choral play with a maskedchorus. for those on the stage who are not just actors but
people who do not have the right to remain in the
country andcouldbe deportedat any time.
The question of who can speak for or on
As the audience enter the Thalia Theater for behalf of the refugees is raised repeatedly
Stemann’s production, they see actors on a mostly throughout the performance. Stemann felt uneasy
bare stage acting as journalists interviewing some about the permanent company of white German
Lampedusa refugees about their ordeal in coming actors at the Thalia Theater representing asylum
to Germany and their current vulnerable status. seekers. He wanted the refugees to be able to
Their faces are projected onto a back screen as represent themselves. And so he developed a kind
they speak and beneath this a series of numbers of compromise concerning who and what gets
in the thousands can be seen that keep getting represented, with the actors and the refugees
larger during the performance, indicating alternatively representing asylum seekers. While
something sinister to do with the fate of refugees. most of Jelinek’s text is performed by the white
Then, three white German actors with scripts in German actors employed by the Thalia Theater,
their hands advance towards the auditorium and often acting with the script in their hands as if to
begin to read the Jelinek text: “We are alive. We emphasize that they are actors representing rather
are alive. The main thing is we live and it hardly is than enacting refugees, the actual asylum seekers
more than that after leaving the sacred homeland. appear and reappear many times on stage during
No one looks down with mercy at our train, but the performance, both as witnesses and as
everyone looks down on us. We fled, not symbolic presences. The white German actors do
convicted by any court in the world, convicted by not stay in character as refugees but step in and
22 Cultural Encounters in Modern Productions of Greek Tragedy
out of their roles. Sometimes, they act as though not only inhabiting a liminal space of uncertainty
they are speaking the lines of refugees and at as to whether they could remain in the country,
other times they speak as actors questioning the but also they were walking a legal tightrope with a
roles that they are playing, or take on the roles of state theatre engaging them in a performance and
German or Austrian citizens questioning the paying them an allowance — an act that could
immigration of foreigners. The actors also voice also be considered illegal.20 The theatre was
the attitudes of certain Germans or Austrians to providing a place where the refugees not only
Ausländer, or foreigners: “And how come he, this were visible and had the chance to speak of their
foreigner, gets to sit in the subway and I don’t own conditions, but were also being paid for their
[…]. Well, I will push him off the platform, at the work on stage, and it was uncertain whether this
next opportunity […]” Stemann further would help or hinder their longterm prospects,
destabilizes characterisation, identity and gender especially as they were taking a risk whenever they
identification by the use of cross-dressing, travelled with the company to other venues. At
desubjectivation, and cross-racialization with, at the end of the play, the male and female refugees
one point, a white actor in black face, a black once again take centre stage and advance on the
actor in white face, another black actor in yellow audience stressing their bodily presence and the
face, and another white actor in red face. This denial of their human rights. They relate how
creates a critical distance that allows the audience some of their fellow refugees have been deported
the space to become politically engaged. and how one of the refugees who was in the
Stemann’s production makes visible those who show died in a parking lot in Amsterdam where
are normally invisible in society and provides he took shelter. One of the refugees announces,
them with the opportunity to confront the “We are here tonight but we are not
audience with stories of their actual day-to-day allowed to be. What you see here is
suffering. Surrounded by a group of male illegal. The leader of this theatre didn’t
refugees, one tells the audience about their want us to be here because we don’t have
coming from Lampedusa: working papers. We are refugees. We play
"We are Lampedusa. We were immigrant the part of refugees, not only in this
workers in Libya When the war started in show, [but] in our lives. We didn’t choose
Libya, we escaped through the sea to this. We didn’t write this script. Someone
Italy because that was the only way to else wrote it. Someone like you. We came,
save our lives. Many people of us were but we are not here at all. Not here at
not able to survive as we did. After two all?”
years in Italy, Italian authorities kicked us And the other refugees on stage respond loudly,
from our various camps without giving “We are here!”, putting pressure on the audience
us integration. This is why we came to again to consider their own responsibility.
Hamburg.” This production as well as Jelinek’s text uses
The others around him join in, “We are here. We various ironic and subversive tactics to question
will fight. For freedom of movement is the current European attitudes and policies
everybody’s right.” towards asylum seekers. They exhibit what Slavoj
The German actors discuss the situation of Zizek calls ‘short circuits’ in the political
being illegal in Austria (and Germany) and living environment by confronting classic notions with
with the constant threat of deportation, and this their ‘own hidden presuppositions’ to reveal their
connects with the actual presence of the asylum ‘disavowed truth’ and thus ‘illuminate a standard
seekers on stage. By law the asylum seekers were text or ideological formation, making it readable
not allowed to be employed in Germany when the in a totally new way.’21 Moreover, the production
play opened in September 2014.19 Consequently, challenges claims and assumptions at the root of
most of the twenty-eight refugees on stage were Western conceptions of citizenship and provokes
23
Nordic Theatre Studies
audiences into thinking for themselves about the actors on stage claim that “freedom of movement
exclusive practices of citizenship and its limitation is everybody’s right.” However, the German (and
on human rights.22 The performance, through its European law) states that asylum seekers must
radical adaptation of a Greek tragedy and the stay in a particular place. Their possibilities to
actual physical presence of refugees threatened work are limited and they are given only a
with deportation, creates an imaginative space minimum of money to survive until their case is
where the possibility for re-evaluation, reflection, considered. But this can take years and so their
and creation opens up. It not only questions lives can be put on hold for a long time.
where people should be allowed to live, but Rousseau’s notion that everyone should have the
specifically what should happen to those refugees right to choose where they want to live and to
on stage and whether the state should act as host which nation they want to belong is obviously not
andprovide for their guests. applicable as nations maintain barriers against
migration and restrict the ability to attain
citizenship.
With regard to the question of hospitality, the Giorgio Agamben points out, "If refugees
production of Die Schutzbefohlenen encourages the (whose number has continued to grow in our
audience to wrestle with their conscience in century, to the point of including a significant
deciding how to respond to what Levinas calls part of humanity today) represent such a
"the proximity of one to the other" who is in a disquieting element in the order of the modern
state of "vulnerability".23 Faced with a group of nation-state, this is above all because by breaking
refugees in their own city, the audience is put in the continuity between man and citizen, nativity
the position of the King of Argos. The and nationality, they put the originary fiction of
production evokes a sense of moral responsibility modern sovereignty in crisis."26 Moreover,
for those on the stage who gaze at the audience Hannah Arendt has argued that the individual
and demand a place to live. The performers are who is deprived of citizenship has no human
not just actors but people who do not have the rights and so the UN Declaration on Human
right to remain in the country and could be Rights can maintain little effectiveness when
deported at any time. The encounter compels an nations continue to exclude or deprive individuals
affective and ethical response. To what extent of citizenship rights.27 While Derrida regards the
should the audience welcome these people who concept of unconditional hospitality “an apolitical
might cause fear or distrust in the local and irreceivable proposition," he claims that, "a
population because they look different, speak a politics that does not maintain a reference to this
different language, perhaps have a different principle of unconditional hospitality is a politics
religion, and different eating habits? Derrida that loses its reference to justice. It may retain its
suggests that "there is no face without rights (which I again distinguish here from
welcome"24, but how far should that welcome be justice), the right to its rights, but it loses justice.
extended? Levinas argues that "to welcome the Along with the right to speak of justice in any
Other is to put in question my freedom."25 Should credible way."28
these refugees be welcomed into their city, into Die Schutzbefohlenen, through its adaptation of
their schools, into their homes? For example, some of the themes in a Greek tragedy and
Levinas questions the appropriate level of featuring the actual physical presence of refugees
intersubjective responsibility; where to set the threatened with deportation, creates an affective
limits on extreme notions of hospitality whereby event and an imaginative space where the
the host could effectively give up his/her place to possibility for re-evaluation, reflection, and
the guest by giving everything to the Other? creation opens up. It not only questions where
The production also raises questions about the people should be allowed to live but specifically
relationship between justice and the law. The what should happen to those refugees on stage
24
Cultural Encounters in Modern Productions of Greek Tragedy
and whether the state (as well as members of the Stemann’s production makes visible those who
audience) should act as host and provide for those are normally invisible in society and provides a
who come to their city. Many politicians have voice to those who normally don’t have one. In so
announced exclusionary methods such as John doing it generates new experiences, interpretable
Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, who by spectators in relation to their own memories
declared in an election speech about preventing and presuppositions, and encourages them to
boat people arriving from Asia, ‘We will decide question their own place and identity in the nation
who comes to this country and the circumstances state and their responsibility to those who are
in which they come,’29 and David Cameron, the excluded. The performance also illuminates the
British Prime Minister, who announced that his mechanism of power behind social discourses on
country would not “allow people to break into immigration, uncovering and exposing power
our country,”30 but would select them from structures andideologies in the nation-state.
refugee camps in Syria’s neighbouring countries. The physical embodiment on stage of asylum
By contrast, the audience of Die Schutzbefohlenen is seekers who are uncertain whether they will be
confronted with a fait accompli and offered an granted asylum adds a Levinasian resonance to
opportunity to intervene. the original play by Aeschylus. In Austria, the
authorities succeeded in removing the refugees
from their occupation of a central church in
In conclusion, major German theatre institutions Vienna to a remote monastery where they became
as well as theatre productions have been invisible and could be processed quietly, and many
responding to the changing social dynamics and were imprisoned or deported. Perhaps by
demographics in a post-migrant culture, and to maintaining a physical presence on the Hamburg
the increasing immigration crisis. Some theatres stage, the Lampedusa refugees were able to
such as Ballhaus Naunynstrasse and the Gorki maintain their uneasy place in German society for
Theatre have led the way in terms of hiring and a little longer. However, unlike The Suppliants by
casting post-migrant actors and challenging Aeschylus in which the daughters of Danaos are
government policies. Others, such as the Thalia granted asylum, the production of Die
Theatre in Hamburg, have been taking risks by Schutzbefohlenen ends, not with a clear answer, but
employing asylum seekers who were not allowed with a sense of uncertainty. It is not evident what
to be employed, allowing them to tell their own will happen to the refugees on stage. And so the
stories and express their claims for the right to responsibility for this cultural encounter is thereby
remain, thereby forcing the audience to consider transferred and directed at the audience. Will you
their own ethical responsibilities to the asylum offer us hospitality andallow us to stay?
seekers in the current humanitarian crisis.