INVISIBLE GAME

(K)eine Grenze

Idea and concept: David Stöhr, Matija Vlatković

Text: David Stöhr, Matija Vlatković, Ivan Vlatković, Vernesa Berbo

Director: David Stöhr

Dramaturg: Matija Vlatković

Stage and Costume Designer: Saskia Göldner

Music and Composition: Ameli Paul (Franziska Ameli Schuster, Paul Valentin Kimmelmann)

Video: Sébastien Dupouey

Light Deseign: Asli Atasoy Öner

Choreographer: Evelin Facchini

Producer:Michiko Günther

PR:Yven Augustin PR

Assistant Director: Maja Zećo

Assistant Dramaturg: Ivan Vlatković

Assistant Stage and Costume: Nikola Čiča

Assistant Production: Nika Nardelli

Intern Stage and Costume: Tamara Paulinyova

with: Javeh Asefdjah, Vernesa Berbo, Murat Seven, Luka Vlatković

Special gratitude extended to Nicole Vögele and Jack Sapoch for supporting us in the development of the play as well as for providing us with insightful thoughts and material of their research.

INVISIBLE GAME deals with illegal push-backs occurring in Europe’s border regions. The play is based on the material of real and documented, unpublished as well as already published, cases. In collaboration with investigative journalists, a theatre evening is created which reflects the current fundamental conflict of borders in a colonized world and tells of the dissolution of the boundaries of the human body.

Two students from Nigeria have travelled to Croatia for a table tennis tournament. A few days later they find themselves in a camp for refugees in Bosnia. What happened? They were kidnapped by police forces in Europe. Shortly after that, an emergency cabinet meeting of the Ministry of the Interior takes place in order to cover up the faux pas. Meanwhile, the police officers in charge are already busy with the next so-called “push-backs”. A Bosnian family on the other side of the border is inadvertently dragged into it all. The EU and other member states send ambivalent messages. A web is spun of post-colonial fears, economic interests, proto-fascist structures, power struggles, and above all a system of violence and oppression.

A system that tortures people after they cross the borders so they don’t come back, so they don’t even try again. Their mobile phones are destroyed because the police forces are afraid of video recordings. These people themselves call their attempt to cross the borders sarcastically “game”. This light formulation hides the very real danger of violence, torture and repression. On the other hand, a perfidious invisible game is being staged in the name of the “Europeans” and to the detriment of the “Others”. It is a narrative in which some people cross geographical borders while other people cross borders of human dignity, human rights and other people’s bodies.

With INVISIBLE GAME, David Stöhr, Matija Vlatković & Ensemble look at the central players in this game. The material for this work was compiled and made available over years by human rights lawyers, investigative journalists and countless others.

Push-back: “Push-backs are a set of state measures by which refugees and migrants are forced back over a border – generally immediately after they crossed it – without consideration of their individual circumstances and without any possibility to apply for asylum or to put forward arguments against the measures taken. Push-backs violate – among other laws – the prohibition of collective expulsions stipulated in the European Convention on Human Rights.” ecchr.eu/en/glossary/push-back

The theatre shows will be followed by panel discussions with experts. These mainly include affected persons, but also journalists, human rights NGOs and people showing solidarity. The panels serve as a multilateral exchange.

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Panelists:

Claire Tixeire (ECCHR)

Ali Yass

Ahmed Isamaldin

Delphine Rodrik (ECCHR)

Bérénice Gaudin (Sea-Watch)

Sascha Girke (Iuventa, tbc)

Vera Wriedt (Hertie School)

Mekonnen Mesghena (HBS, tbc)

Majid Bajwa

Lea Rösner (Bundestag WiMi – moderation)