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  • Vote for “Der Junge mit dem Koffer” / “Boy with a Suitcase”


    Is political theatre for a young audience still really possible? “Boy with a Suitcase“ by Mike Kenny is a play about a flight to Europe from a country beset by civil war; a flight full of obstacles like military raids, a battle with wolves, exploitative child labour in the textile industry and corrupt fishermen in the Mediterranean. Its narrative also uses the seven journeys of Sinbad the Sailor. The facts that waves of emigration are now an everyday occurrence all over the world makes it possible to create an internationally universal language to create such a political theatre, as demonstrated in the co-operation between the Schnawwl Theatre in Mannheim and the Ranga Shankara Theater from Bangalore in India.

    The show’s director Andrea Gronemeyer has succeeded in bringing together two very different theatrical traditions and created a synthesis which nonetheless retains each line of tradition. This applies to all levels of the production, the music, the dramaturgy, the choreographic arrangements on an almost bare stage, not forgetting the language. The majority of the dialogue is spoken in English. By doubling the main role of Naz with the charismatic young actors B.V. Shrunga and David Benito Garcia (who speaks the Sinbad texts in German and sometimes comments on the scenes in the same language from the point of view of an observer standing on the sidelines), the director has been able to create a poetic atmosphere that is strengthened by the music – a blend of Western and traditional Indian styles – which simultaneously expresses the feeling of alienation. The language difference is emphasised in the music and the sensual choreography, both of which enable us to identify with, and also to stand at a distance from Naz’s story.

    Manfred Jahnke