MULTILINGUAL PROJECT
Project
MULTILINGUAL PROJECT
Multilingualism on the stage as a way of destabilising the world-wide dominance of the English language.
This is an ongoing project that I started in 2021, by conducting interviews with migrant/bilingual actors, directors and writers/makers to reflect on their own training and their own practice, and on how they themselves navigate some of these linguistic tensions. So far, I’ve spoken to over 50 practitioners.
I wrote the following as a kind of manifesto for the project:
There is a political motivation to unseat/upset the
dominance of English as part of reckoning with colonisation, imperialism and
capitalism at ‘home’.
Rather than putting foreign languages onstage as a way of
‘showing off’ cultural capital, or as an aesthetic- ultimately a bit of a
fetish- what would happen if the conflict/confusion created in the audience by
not understanding a character or a part of a scene were allowed to exist
without attempting to resolve it with English surtitles? We don’t understand
things all the time in life- why is it such a problem if we don’t understand
something in the theatre (by all estimations, a very safe space)?
The question submerged in this is can the English-speaking
majority in the audience tolerate the experience of not always understanding,
or realising some bits are not meant for them in what is largely a safe space?
(This is meant to echo the refugee/immigrant experience: you buy the ticket,
and you go, but this does not mean you understand or that space is made for
you).
It is also a question of who we are making art for, and who
we want to reach or represent. One of my respondents for the project, summed it up very well:
“In my experience, when it comes to storytelling and cross-cultural work, having access to English, plays an important role. But in the long terms it turns to a hinder, creating distance between the artists and the communities she/he and the stories rise from. The English dominance create a border line which clearly exclude different groups of people from consuming art. The unwritten, hidden, unintentional but loud message is, only intellectual and well-educated individuals are welcome. While for many artists the objective of doing theatre is to reach the target community and diaspora. In general, destabilising English as a dominant language have many advantages and one is, it contributes to reduce stereotypes.” [Monirah Hashemi, Afghan-Swedish practitioner]
To be able to imagine ways of making these kinds of pieces in the UK, it might be important first to think about the kinds of training that practitioners (performers/actors, directors, writers) undergo, and the practices used in rehearsal rooms. How well does current training serve bilingual/multilingual actors, as well as actors who might not speak other languages but might have more than one cultural background. I’m also curious about how to create spaces and practices that sustain and nurture the integrity of these artists.
Current training, for actors, directors or writers, has been overwhelmingly designed with a monolingual/mono-heritage student in mind. However, thanks to the work that’s been done in access and outreach, these are no longer the only students on these courses. Yet the pedagogy and the deeper conceptual frameworks of the courses have not altered in response. Therefore, they are hampering or even actively harming the development of students who are not monolingual or mono-heritage.
I’m asking how training could better serve the students with multiple languages or multiple heritages, and to find a way of rethinking it.
In the week between the 16th and 22nd December I was granted studio space at the New Diorama Theatre in London, and I invited practitioners to come and join me in the studio with whatever they were working on at the moment, to have their own rehearsal. While I was in the process of applying for funding for the project, I was only able to cover transport costs, so it was important that the studio time was mutually beneficial.
The idea was to use the space as a shared rehearsal space, which allowed me to observe different practitioners’ processes and gave us an opportunity to discuss and experiment with ways of working.
As a result, I was invited to several practitioners’ R&Ds since to observe and find fruitful intersections and interventions between our work and I am very excited to continue with this. This led to several collaborations, namely with iulia isar and BÉZNĂ Theatre.