With the help of Myrte Amons, a theatre director and teacher, we created a very interesting piece to perform in the city. In the first part we got the excersize to use the characters that we had played with the day before, dressing up like them and acting like them in the Vondelpark, in order to see how people reacted and to feel what it is like to be judged on your looks, habits or behaviour. It was a very funny experience, some of the participants really got into their role and we observed that a lot of passersby got really confused by them.
The second session took place at the Museumplein, a very busy area with a lot of tourists. We had practiced a piece on invisible theatre with the use of masks. The goal was to do a sort of flashmob in public space where nobody would expect us. The piece was about an invicible border, with two border guards checking all the people that wanted to pass. All of us took on a mask as soon as the play started, so it was visible for the audience that something was happening. It was quite a powerful piece and quite some passersby stopped to look at us and made pictures of us. At the end we all held a poster with a statement:
“People who are born with good passports will never know how sharp the teeth of this world are and how strong when they bite. The teeth of this world: police officers, the alien police, borderguards, receptionists of cheap hotels. The worm and the bird move freely around this world, but the people without passports…” – Rodaan al Galidi
