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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2020
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden. ( Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
This play was written during the Cultural Diaspora's residency programme at the Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France).
Project notes
The ageing diaspora is the focal point of this play.
It stems from my curiosity about intersections; of humans and how they operate outside their distinct cultural elements. In this case, three men in diaspora battling with the difficulties of retiring to a nursing home in Europe.
Some facts
There are nearly 220 million first-generation migrants around the world: that translates to around 4 per cent of the world's population. If they were to make up a nation, its population would be a little larger than that of Brazil. Over the years of rapid migration, for several reasons, the daily lives and individuation processes of those ageing in diaspora are being negotiated and renegotiated. Among a large number of ageing immigrants, their various migration and transnational histories become entangled with a nostalgia for the homeland. In most cases, it is a homeland that has begun to be vivid, yet illusory.
Synopsis
Three first-generation immigrants from Africa, The Balkans and South Korea who have all had a distinguished career as an astrophysicist, a chemist and a filmmaker respectively, find themselves in a nursing home in Europe. ‘How the hell did we end up here?’ In their seclusion (that's how they understand it), they form an unusual bond where they explore/share their existential anxieties. Youssouf agitates over the omnipresence of people in the panopticon, Moon-So has sleepless nights over haunting voices and Bajran just wants to get baptised one more time.
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