Refugee Theatre in the (Inter)medial Matrix: Die Schutzbefohlenen and the Limits of Theatre as Public Sphere

Abstract

Using Niklas Stemann’s production of the Elfriede Jelinek text Die Schutzbefohlenen, shown at The Berlin Theatertreffen 2015, as a point of departure, the chapter surveys recent German and European productions that respond variously to the current refugee situation and the political crisis arising from it. Increasingly, the German theatre has worked with the introduction of actual refugees on stage as a way of breaking down the borders of mere representation. The chapter argues that because of the irreducibly mediated presence of refugees, such a strategy quickly leads to an aesthetic impasse, an impasse already reflected but unresolved in the Jelinek text.