Education Resource - Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competences in ...

Documented practicesknow the circumstances. When he arrived they put him in an accommodation centrefor a while….its not very accommodating though, it’s overcrowded and not verycomfortable, or so I’ve been told…’The F begins to mark out the dimensions of the walls of a [rectangular] room withmasking tape, as he speaks. He engages the assistance of different members of thegroup to do this without taking the focus away from what he is telling them.The F explains that eventually the Man left the centre, or he ran away, and made his wayto the city. The man came here, with a suitcase, to live in this room. He occupies this oneroom. He hasn’t been here very long.The F takes his time as he speaks, pausing to allow the significance of what is beingsaid to be absorbed and to resonate through the group, and to make space for the youngpeople to respond if they wish:‘What’s his name?’‘That’s a good question. But unfortunately not one I know the answer to….a manwithout a name, what’s in a name….?’The F marks out a door. ‘It opens this way. Strange but you can lock it from the inside butnot from the outside etc…’.The negotiable gives the site its texture and mood. The young people are invited todescribe the condition of the walls, the ceiling, the floor. In this task we are striving forprecision and detail. In Malta for example the young people didn’t just decide on the kindof window – two-paned opening inwards:‘Its got two panes held together at the centre with a metal catch. It’s woodenframed.’ Prompted by the F’s questions and encouragement the group becomesmore particular. ‘It’s rotten on the inside at the bottom where the condensation hasgathered. It’s green but the paint work is flaking away. There is a dark green mouldalong the bottom of the glass. The glass is quite greasy, but there’s a patch whereit’s been cleaned, maybe by someone’s sleeve. On the left hand side there is acrack traversing the pane, it distorts your reflection. On the right hand side at the topcorner there is a spider’s web. It’s new. There’s a fly trapped there.’Every detail builds the investment and belief in the drama.There is also the ‘ghost’ of a picture on one of the walls. ‘Can anyone tell me whichone?’ ‘Is there anything else on the walls’ – ‘bits of blu-tac where a poster has beentaken down’. ‘A stain above the bed’. Distinctive marks or blemishes that those who havelived here before have left behind, such as a dint in the plaster from the door handlerepeatedly banging against the wall when it is opened, etc. Each individual contribution isbound into the socially-held site.Documented practicesThere are some things about the site that are given and others that are negotiable.Givens: On the other side of the door to the room is a corridor which leads to the rest ofthe apartment. We don’t know the layout of it, who he shares the toilet and kitchen with,or who else lives here.A window overlooking the main street.Inside the room there is a bed. A low-standing chest of drawers whichhouses his clothes is next to it. Opposite the bed and by thewindow is a utilitarian chair.There is a light by the side of the door and singleworking light bulb dangling from a flex in theceiling.All of these givens are physically mapped outwith masking tape. The social reality of the site isslowly crafted.It could be as early as this point in the workshop that the participants determine who theMan is – refugee/migrant or, even more specifically in two cases, an asylum seeker andan illegal immigrant.Two objects.The F then places the suitcase in the room, under the bed. The precise placing of it isinfluenced by how the young people interact with the space they are creating, what theyintuit about it: at the pillow end or the foot of the bed, pushed right up against the wall,nosing out from under the bed, handle facing the wall or into the room or to the sidetowards the door etc. Each option carries a very particular meaning.The F then tells the group that at the side of the bed there is something that the Manbrought with him into the room: any everyday object that any one of us might have by thebed. The F doesn’t know if it came with him to this country from his homeland, or whetherhe acquired it in the accommodation centre or here in the city.3233