Grensgeval

Capitalist society in therapy

Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek wrote Die Schutzbefohlenen in 2013 as a reaction to the increasingly desperate refugee problem in Europe. Jelinek regards refugees as pivotal figures when it comes to reviewing the situation in today’s Europe and to discussing norms and values, the role of religion and political responsibility. Alluding to Aeschylus’ classical play The Supplicants, she gives asylum seekers a voice and with her sharp writing mercilessly lays bare the cynicism and latent racism in European politics.

Her text has proved to be more than prophetic: all the images that are now burnt into our memories – from the washed up corpses of children to sinister refrigerated vehicles – she minutely calls to life years before the actual events. The main character in Jelinek’s pieces seems to be language itself. She is less interested in classical dialogue than in the chorus texts and messages delivered by messengers that she finds in Greek tragedy. The perspective is mostly that of the refugee, but sometimes also that of the fearful white European. Guy Cassiers matches Jelinek’s torrent of words with images and with four dancers in a choreography by Maud Le Pladec.

• Director Guy Cassiers from Antwerp’s Toneelhuis throws himself into a diptych about the problems surrounding migration. Next season, he will be pitting Het kleine meisje van meneer Linh (Monsieur Linh and His Child), based on Philippe Claudel’s poetically understated novel.