Enjoy Racism

The Swiss directing duo Thom Truong invites the audience to a performative experiment. Under the conditions of the theater, a community is created that discriminates against people based on a single characteristic. The audience is thus lured out of their comfort zone and confronted with their own privileges. The tricky thing about such special rights is that they seem so self-evident that their owners are often not aware of them.

The presenter Marie Caroline Blanche leads through the evening as if it were a charity dinner. The audience is looked after: aperitifs including champagne for everyone. Not quite for everyone, not for the brown-eyed. The audience is divided according to eye color: people with blue irises experience the performance differently than those with brown ones. They are in different rooms, are played off against each other, experience demonstrations of power, humiliation, participation and privileges - depending on their classification.

This interactive piece goes to the core of the matter because it does not allow even an enlightened left-liberal cultural audience to settle into their own beliefs - "We are the good guys, you are the bad guys". Racism and privilege can be experienced in this theatrical setting in a way that is as playful as it is painful. It is a radical experience for the audience to be at the mercy of a situation that is the norm for many people around the world and whose everyday life is tied exclusively to phenotypic, external characteristics.

The audience is confronted with the laws of arbitrariness, futile resistance, speechlessness and powerlessness - and also with regard to their own tendency to prefer to endure a situation rather than leave it.

Supported by City of Zurich Culture, Department of Culture Canton of Zurich, SoKultur Lottery Fund Canton of Solothurn, Paul Schiller Foundation

enjoyracism3889-min

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