General

Migrant’s hopes on stage

by Laura Carbonetti, June 17, 2016.

The story of a woman who runs away from her homeland ravaged
by war and destruction becomes the symbol of all the migrants who decide
to cross the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life.
 

It
is not fiction, but a true story and journey transformed into a touching
performance by the company of the “Southern Area” of Pope John XXIII
Community. “The colors of the journey” is an experimental dance theater
project, whose starting point is a story many migrants share. It
explains what drives these human beings to undertake such a dangerous
journey by staging harmony, songs, and dances that characterized their
small villages of origin, before the war destroyed everything there.



Lights go out and the audience sees a woman in the desert dunes, patting her belly and singing a lullaby.
After having traveled for days, she is tired and afraid, but knows that
this trip could might offer her and her little baby a better life. She
does not step back and gets into a half broken boat, a dinghy that
breaks, after a day’s sail, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The
woman and her traveling companions fall into the water. Many people
drown, but she is among the lucky ones who get rescued by a big ship
that takes them to Italy. The journey is over and a few days later, she
gives birth to Baahr, a little girl whose eyes are dark like the sea at
night.


Little Baahr’s and her mother’s story is the story of
hundreds of women who decide to risk their lives just to have a chance
to happiness
. Their number is impressive, an army of strong but
desperate migrants. This fact is not testified only by the images we
see in daily news, but also by the institutions. European agency Frontex
has estimated that 31,250 migrants landed in Italy from 1 January to 10
May 2016 and, as reported by the United Nations, 48% of them are women.
The “lucky” ones who reach their destination alive find themselves
alone in a foreign country. All too often, they become an easy prey for
crime and end up in the streets. A slap in the face of courage and
dignity.



“The Colors of the Journey” tackles difficult issues, to
which the media do not pay much attention, at least not from the point
of view of the migrants.
 

“We told this story both in primary
and middle schools – explains Laura Lubatti, director of the theater
company – and many children told they had never heard that story
before.” Gently, but remaining faithful to the stories of the real stars
of this humanitarian tragedy that transformed the Mediterranean sea
into a cemetery, actors address a diverse audience, sometimes even a
“difficult” one. In fact, in addition to schoolchildren, the company has
performed in the House Giarre, District of Trepunti (Catania), for 70
inmates and young people imprisoned exactly for illegal immigration.
“People really die at sea” – said a young migrant who was visibly moved.
In the daily experience of thousands of people, a happy ending is far
from being granted.


Freely adapted from Always, a monthly founded by Don Oreste Benzi.