The Charges by Elfriede Jelinek, directed by Nisha Abdulla

The Charges (Die Schutzbefohlenen), written by Elfriede Jelinek and translated into English by Gitta Honegger, is the fourth and the last reading in this year's German Spotlight. Nisha Abdulla directs the English reading of the play.

About the play:
A group of refugees have made a treacherous journey in extreme conditions to reach a small European city for shelter and a fresh start. They have instead become a political minefield for local authorities. The group is hastily bundled away into a church where they wait in the compound indefinitely while a decision is taken on their future – a decision that they have no control over. Much is at stake here, and yet the refugees bare incisive truths about the world around them with sharp wordplay and dark humour.

© Nisha Abdulla Director's note:
I first came across the play in a collection I found at Bookworm. My first attempt to read the play was a disaster – the text reads almost like an unbroken continuous string of half sentences and phrases, no attribution to characters, not even clarity of the multiple voices in each sentence or paragraph! And yet, the sass and the political sharpness in the text was still exciting to see. I found that it resonated with domestic politics just as much as it did with the refugee crisis in Europe. And now, a year later, tackling it as part of the German Spotlight series means that I can unlock the full potential of the text with a cast that is equally fascinated by the challenge. 

Nisha Abdulla is a theatremaker, performer, and educator based in Bangalore. She is the Artistic Director of Qabila, a collective whose work centers new writing around lived experience and the dissenting imagination.

Credits:
Cast: Laxmi Priya, Amrith Jayan, Sathwik NN

Only one performance. Entry free!

German Spotlight is a joint project of the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore and Sandbox Collective.