UWC Mahindra College monthly newsletter


Sunday, April 1, 2012

Fight or Flight - theatre season 2012

The proof of this will be in the feedback that comes from the participants, because this was not theatre for an audience, but an interactive role-play exercise attempting to force a new immediacy of experience in relation to the issue of dispossession and refugees.
Very thoroughly organized and planned by Mark and Emilie, the participants were led on an all night series of separations, shocks, absurd boredoms and confused humiliations before they could arrive at the purple star camp (a place of relative comfort and peace – at least a tent and a bonfire).

Arvin, Quentin and Nandita deserve special mention as the nasty guards and assailants, whose job was, in many ways, the hardest.  And Olga and Joanna, who worked through the night as officials. There was a large team of volunteers, though, playing the parts of the oppressors in one way or another, and they all contributed. So did the two groups of participants who were subjected to a night of refugee or sub-refugee status.

While no one got hurt and there was no psychological trauma involved, everyone involved was forced to confront something about themselves or about the central question. Looking at their tired faces in the morning, there was a slightly emotional, strung-out feeling about everyone, a sense that everyone had been pushed to experience something they weren’t expecting to. It is difficult to imagine that this night will not have impacted significantly on their lives. And when we think about refugees, we will remember this night and remember the efforts of Mark and Emilie to bring it to life. All will remember the thrill and the chill of a night in the open, vulnerable and lost, and consider the helplessness of the dispossessed. Perhaps it will continue to make people think for years to come, and if so, this piece of theatre has achieved what it intended to and something very special happened.

Benedict Clark
Head of Aesthetics

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