Theatre Deportation Cast
By Björn Bicker
English-language premiere
Björn Bicker is a guest of the Goethe-Institut
Theatre @ York University, Foster Studio, ACE 207
7:30pm January 25–27, 2018
2pm January 26 & 27, 2018
Directed by Keira Loughran
Deportation Cast looks at “exile” from an unexpected angle: the story of a Romani family from Kosovo who has lived in Germany for ten years and whose application for permanent asylum is rejected; it follows the family back to their home village, where they feel unwelcome and foreign now.
Deportation Cast by Björn Bicker, who will be present, premiered at Hannover Staatstheater in 2011 and is a story of refugees. However, it focuses on aspects that are less frequently discussed: What happens to the families who are denied refugee status and are sent back to the countries they fled? And: how do the individuals who manage the deportations of asylum seekers deal with their often daunting tasks? What are the strategies develop to cope with the weight of being part of the machine—a machine that is meant to regulate one country’s well-being but causes distress and fear for those it rejects?
"This play captured my imagination immediately. Björn Bicker has given us everything I love in my favourite scripts—content that is immediately resonant and emotionally engaging, a structure that demands theatrical interpretation, and characters and relationships that are rich, complex, human. I am so excited to work on the world premiere of this wonderful translation; to bring this piece, with all its questions of identity, responsibility, and forced migration, to a Canadian audience through a Canadian theatrical sensibility; and with this fine graduating class of York University’s distinguished Theatre Performance program." - Keira Loughran
Hailing from Toronto, Loughran has been pushing the boundaries of Canadian theatre for over 20 years as a director, producer, actor, dramaturg and playwright with companies across the country. She currently serves as Associate Producer for the Forum and Laboratory at the Stratford Festival, working with Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. Last year, she directed the critically acclaimed production of "The Aeneid" at the Stratford Festival and this season she will be directing The Komagata Maru Incident there. Other productions she has directed include "Titus Andronicus" for Canadian Stage, "Pu-Erh" for which she received a Dora nomination for Outstanding Direction, and "Little Dragon" – a play she also wrote and performed in. Prior to Stratford, she was Artistic Producer of the SummerWorks Festival from 2005-2007. Her company K’Now Theatre, dedicated to contemporary, culturally diverse, and socially relevant theatre, has produced two shows, garnering seven Dora nominations and winning three.
Björn Bicker, born in 1972, studied literature and philosophy in Tübingen and Vienna and writes prose, theater plays, radio plays and essays. From 1999 to 2001 he worked as assistant dramaturg and dramaturg at the Burgtheater Vienna and from 2001 to 2009 as dramaturg at the Munich Kammerspiele. His play “Illegal” saw its debut performance at the Münchner Kammerspiele in the 2007/08 season. He conceived the urban projects “Bunnyhill” (2003-2006), “Doing Identity – Bastard München” (2008) and “Hauptschule der Freiheit” (2009), which was awarded the German Prize for Cultural Training in 2010. Since 2009 he has created works commissioned by several theaters, including “Trollmanns Kampf” (2010) and “Deportation Cast” (2012), for which he was honored with the German Youth Theater Award in 2012.