Is an integrated society possible? Under what conditions can we grow together? How do young refugees and young ‘locals’ in particular meet?
Together with 15 young people aged 10-18 – refugees who are accommodated in Bonn, as well as local young people from a wide range of backgrounds who have lived here for a long time – we explored these questions over a period of more than six months and developed a sensual and poetic project based on Peter Handke’s theatre play ‘The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other’. This play does not contain a single spoken word, but consists of a choreography of short and long encounters between different characters in a fictitious place that could be anywhere in Europe.
During the rehearsals, the participating refugees and local young people brought in their own cultures, typical behaviours from their respective living environments and their very personal life experiences and portrayed them using a character. The encounters between the young people intensify, a ‘show of cultures’ takes place, a sensual, colourful world theatre – until the audience has the feeling that perhaps the people are uniting here?
