The documentary theater „Die Mittelmeer Monologe“ („The Mediterranean Monologues“) by Michael Ruf from „Wort und Herzschlag“ is about tragedies at the sea – man-made, about humans who help, blocking political systems and inhuman isolation. The autor and director has recorded four, partly interwoven monolouges, based on interwies with refugees and helpers. Some of the original storys have been condensed but nothing invented on addition. Professional actors have performed those monologues in a catchy way.
The Mediterranean Monologues tell storys of the politically resistants Naomie from Cameroon and Yassin from Libya, who find themselves on a boat to Europe, of brutal „coast guards“ in dubiouse sea rescue centres and of activists, who are doing somthing against the dying on the Mediterranean Sea.
These activists convince the coast guard with an „Alarmphone“ to look for humans in distress at sea or learn how to save people from drowning on the „Seawatch“– in a nutshell, they do the most natural thing, which hase become anything but natural in 2020: Saving human life!
After the perfromance, three humans with migration experience, who are living in Graz,came on stage. The tragedies performed in the monologes are partly familiar to them but although they carry those traumatic experiences and suffer from the political blockades of the Austrian migration policy, all of them answered the questions of the audiation with courage.
Invited local politicans had other appointments, altough this particular appointment would have been especially important for their education of empathy and their understanig of human rights.
