My Unknown Enemy – an international actors’ meeting
centered around "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett
took place as a project of the CIDC in co-operation with ITI Centers
in Bangladesh, Germany, India and Nepal in Dhaka from 7th till 17th
April,2004.
The idea for the workshop series was developed by Berlin director,
Alexander Stillmark, and proposed as a project to the ITI’s
Cultural Identity and Development Committee (CIDC). It was then
taken on by the members of this international working group.
The point of departure for the project was an encounter workshop
with actors from Germany and the Magreb (exclusively those from
Iran) which was carried out in continuation of the project "bild.bau.stelle
II" as the ITI’s artistic accompanying program at "Theater
der Welt" ("Theater of the World") in Bonn in
2002. At that time the intention was to create a position with our
artistic resources, faced with the prejudices and suspicions contained
in the exuberant fear of terrorism. The classical text, "Philotas"
by Lessing, the German Enlightenment philosopher, established the
basis for a recollection of and return to the common roots of humanistic
enlightenment.
The goal of "My Unknown Enemy" is to find theater makers
from countries which are involved in bilateral (historical or current)
political, religious or cultural conflicts and invite them to work
in a common rehearsal process. Here, the dramatic text brings the
material and the topic in order to reach understandings among participants
about conflict situations, images of the enemy and the hero, apparently
absolute differences and limits of tolerance through actorly discussions
and theater-practical experiences. In order to create equal conditions
for entry into the topic for both sides, the workshops should always
be carried out in a neutral third country (which can just as well
itself have experienced or be experiencing conflict). According
to a principal of rotation, the host country should be a participant
the next time around.
In this sense the workshop in December of 2003 in Cairo was a first
important step further. Also using Lessings "Philotas",
Stillmark worked with actors from Egypt, Germany and Switzerland.
This workshop was supported by ITI Germany and the Goethe
Institute in Cairo.
Immediately after the adoption of the project at the world congress
in Athens, the centers from Cyprus and Bangladesh showed a strong
interest in this kind of actors’ meeting. At the CIDC board
meeting in December of 2003 Bangladesh took on the role of host,
setting the course for a workshop there. A ten-day theater workshop
was planned to take place in Dhaka, Bangladesh with participating
actors from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. In addition, the
following plan for the distribution of financial expenditures was
agreed upon: ITI Bangladesh would provide accommodation, the general
care of participants and local transportation. ITI centers in the
participating countries would be responsible for the participants’
travel costs.
Over the course of months preparations were being made through
an intensive e-mail exchange and telephone calls between Dhaka,
Berlin, Calcutta, Katmandu, Karachi, Lahore and Delhi. Unfortunately,
the actors from Sri Lanka had to cancel, firstly due to lack of
funds for travel costs and secondly because of a number of national
and religious holidays which would take place during the planned
workshop time. The participation of the artists from Nepal and Pakistan
would only be possible if there was financial support for them.
Support was finally granted through ITI Germany with funding from
the Cultural Foundation of Countries (Kulturstiftung
der Länder).
This time Stillmark selected Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting
for Godot" as textual basis. The result of the movement workshop
would be essentially left open in order to avoid placing the participants
under disruptive stress. The project would not be about the production
of a performance or the reception of an author. Encounters among
players instead of a closing presentation would take central importance.
In any case, if the participants would wish, a "Thanksgiving
Show" was thought of for the host country. Previous experience
had shown that the participants took advantage of this possibility
every time, gladly giving insight into the work and experiences
of their days together. In Bangladesh as part of a co-operation
with the Goethe
Institute in Dhaka, plans were underway to conclude our workshop
with a public presentation in the auditorium of the Institute.
April 2004
The Berlin director Alexander Stillmark, Michael Freundt –
as dramaturg and workshop coordinator – and Ujjval Batacharya
(journalist and translator) travel from Germany to Bangladesh. The
time has come for the concept, "My Unknown Enemy", to
prove itself in practice for the first time. We do not know the
participants. During the selection process we had put trust in the
competence of our colleagues in Delhi, Calcutta, Kathmandu , Lahore
and Karachi. Which assumptions are they going to bring with them?
How will they react to one another? Which political / which theater-practical
experiences will we have with each other?
Finally, fourteen participants will work with us. Seven colleagues
from India, six from Pakistan and an actor from Nepal. We will work
on a total of five scenes from the first act of the piece. Scenes
between Vladimir and Estragon, the appearance of Pozzo and Lukcy,
the monolog of Lucky and the appearance of the boy (who brings the
news of the non-appearance of Godot).
Multiple improvisations will be made about the following themes:
images of the enemy, the Other and foreignness. Boalesque gesture
machines, living sculptures and improvised scenes emerge, based
on these themes. Various aspects of these topics become remarkable
and strikingly obvious for everyone: the difference between the
propagated cliché-like enemy images ("One says the Muslims
are my enemy. One says the Indians are my enemy. One says the woman
is my enemy" ), the subjective fears and threats and the personal
enemy images which the participants possess, ("which hinder
education", "the oligarchy in my country", "those
who hinder me from developing myself freely"….).
It is less often the political or religious differences that stand
in the forefront, that the participants perceive as separating them
from one another.
The political and religious border between Pakistan and India is
reflected upon as being drawn from outside, by the political leadership.
They themselves (as artists, as politically thinking human beings
far from a claim to be the sole legitimate representative of a religion)
see themselves as open to an encounter with the other side.
Negotiations of differences, of separating aspects are made together,
rather than being made from the viewpoint of differing positions.
The common roots in Indian culture come to be appreciated by everyone,
and the special qualities of the language and culture in each individual
region (whether in the Bengali language, or in the culture of the
Punjab, Manipuras, Tripuras,…) come to be respected by everyone.
In this way, the workshop need not afford an "overcoming"
of borders. It need not be a tolerance and understanding work-out,
and it does not require a theater-practical run-through using positions
of belonging or foreign, friend or enemy.
However, we do create together a clarity concerning power mechanisms
which exclude and take defensive action against the foreign, radicalize
and fanaticize, and lastly, carry out violence. The strength of
the suppressed and the fear of the powerful are also themes which
become noticeable in the scenes and improvisations. Naturally, each
different historical experience of life in a democracy or military
dictatorship has made a lasting impression on the artists. The daily
and often dangerous fight for women’s rights in Pakistan which
the group carries out around Sheema Kermani affects the Pakistani
theater professionals differently than the actors in India who work
in a liberal theater.
After ten days of work a small climax was reached with the presentation
of the process in the form of single scenes and thematic improvisations
in the auditorium of the Goethe Institute in Dhaka. Including numerous
people involved in the Bengali theater scene, regular visitors to
the events, partners of the Goethe Institute and representatives
of ITI Bangladesh, around 100 visitors saw the approximately 70
minute presentation and used the occasion as a chance to engage
in stimulating exchange with the workshop participants.
At this point we would like to extend our special thanks to the
CIDC and ITI in Bangladesh for their loving and careful role as
host.
We believe that as a fundamental result of this workshop, the participants
have taken home with them laughter and questions. It was the experience
of a community of artists and engaged contemporaries above and beyond
all religious and political borders, an experience which they enjoyed
with profuse openness and joy. There was also a principle of questioning
– to pose questions about the text, about one’s own
work, about the present time in which one lives – and, therefore,
a becoming conscious of the responsibility which one carries for
him or herself, for one’s own work and for one’s own
share in the community.
"Theater
der Welt"