Operationalising Borders, Euro-African Borderscapes on Stage

Elaborating on a processual reading of borders through the trans-disciplinary perspective of postcolonial theory, this presentation will consider on-the-ground situations of Afro-European borderscapes. This investigation is pertinent to an analysis of conceptual changes in thinking European borders along three main lines of reasoning. First, a postcolonial methodological approach privileges a dissenting perspective allowing for oblique, hybrid, and anti-canonical paths of enquiry. Second, the African presence in Europe is nowadays extremely important --physically and culturally-- to redefine praxis of border crossing and concepts of borderscapes. Third, a major focus on action leads to concentrate on daily life as the essential landscape of cultural production. Praxis will therefore provide the theoretical standpoint (as in de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life and in the methodological approach of Cultural Studies here invoked) against which to investigate Euro-African borderscapes on theatre stage. Along these theoretical lines, and selecting Italy and African migrants to Italy as context and subjects of analysis, this paper will look at the work of the theatre companies Teatro delle Albe (set in Ravenna) and Takku Ligey Téâtre (set in Diol Kadd and Dakar), and of Afro-European playwrights. They are: Italian-Ravenna-based Marco Martinelli, Senegalese-Italian-from-Romagna Mandiaye N’Diaye, Italian-at-times-Nairobi-based Marco Baliani, and Yoruba-Nigerian Bode Sowande. Harlequin and Pinocchio --typical characters of the Italian literary and theatrical tradition—will provide fascinating examples of cultural bridges in performance.