The play “Under the Same Roof” produced as part of the “Port of Dreamers” EU project and directed by Ivana Janošev, with co-production by the Kulturanova Association and the Hungarian minority Novi Sad Theatre – Újvidéki Színház, was staged at the 72nd Festival last night 29 July at 9.30pm at Lazareti. The play is on again this evening for the last time this Festival season, and completely sold out.
The play “Under the Same Roof“ is an adaptation of the book by the same written by H. Sußebach and A. Baitar, which is actually a diary of one German and one Syrian man. Henning, the German, has welcomed Syrian Amir into his home, making him a part of his family – Henning and his partner Nicole becoming his German parents. Amir, Henning and Nicole, under that one roof, are conducting – as Nicole once puts it – an experiment of Amir’s integration into German society. From the moment Amir steps into their house until his departure six months later to attend university, they spend every moment of their co-habitation trying to overcome judgements they have about one another.
Director Ivana Janošev said that the book was not at all hard to adapt to the stage as it boiled down to singular experiences, to stories of real people. The migrant question is examined through the fates of everyday people, instead of the lens of petty politics.
– When I read the book “Under the Same Roof” I saw that it encompassed all that we are trying to convey, as all the materials we sorted through previously already came together in the two German characters, Nicole and Henning because they also kept up with the news, read articles, looked at all the difficult imagery. Their answer to it all is that they allowed one, out of a million, strangers into their home. They wondered what political awareness is and found that the answer is that political awareness is one seeing everything that is truly happening in the world around us. – concluded Janošev.
Director Ivana Janošev did the dramaturgy together with Aleksandra Mrđen, with performances by Uroš Mladenović, Jelena Galović and Daniel Huszta, set and costume design by Attila Antal and Višnja Žugić. Jovan Živanović did the music while Milan Vračar is the play’s producer. “Under the Same Roof“ premiered in February this year at Novi Sad Theatre. The Port of Dreamers project is co-funded by the European Union Creative Europe programme deals with the long history of migrations on the European continent. Over the span of three years, the project explored the experience of being a migrant, the positive impact of migrations on development of certain cultural, social and economic environments and the relationship between the terms (and concepts) ‘citizen of Europe’ and ‘migrant’.