In his novel “Herkunft”, Saša Stanišić tells the story of his family and migration experiences, and explores the significance of memories for the construction of individual identity. On the one hand, he does so from a personal perspective; on the other, his story also has a universal format insofar as it is one that is experienced by many people around the world in a similar way. It is the story of war, displacement and migration and the loss of one’s homeland. At the same time, it is one of arrival and integration, of self-empowerment through language, of feeling at home in different worlds, but also of the complexity of origin and identity.
The theatre project is adapting parts of the novel for a digital stage; the focus is on the extent to which and in what circumstances theatre is possible in a virtual space. The co-presence of actors and audience in a joint space is constitutive for theatre. The question arises to what extent this space can be virtual or whether it must inevitably have an existing physical constitution? What conditions must be fulfilled so that an online performance is actually experienced as theatre and not merely as film or video art? In light of the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of theatres, these questions are becoming more relevant. To find answers, we will carry out theatrical experiments in the digital space, with a particular focus on exploring the activation and involvement of the public.
The novel “Herkunft” is an excellent template as readers can decide what happens in its last section. During this experiment, this principle of participation will be transferred to the audience, with the hope that it contributes to a collective experience and a live moment. Therefore, it seems appropriate to create a digital journey based on the topic of the novel, Migration. People migrate to places; theatre is migrating to the world of virtuality. Digitality permits us to tell these stories in a non-linear, fragmentary, fantastic manner and thus also to formally address the specifics of remembering and fabulating.
Various artists from the fields of painting, illustration, animation, video art, game design, graphic and web design, composition, voice and sound design will be asked to participate so that the plurality of the stories, perspectives and identities that are characteristic of the novel can be incorporated into the project on a structural level as well; they will design individual scenes or narrative threads in visual or auditory form. These scenes can be “accessed” on the project homepage under the Performances tab; however, the audience can determine the sequence of the scenes and influence how the stories proceed, while experiencing live encounters and interactions in the process. The final part is designed as a computer game. In this way, everyone can undergo their own separate journey in the digital space with regard to the topic of “Herkunft” [Origin] and share it with others.