Eye to eye with zebras, gnus, giraffes, and antelopes. Using 360° glasses, the audience is immersed in impressive film footage from Tanzanian national parks. Here it is also possible to see the people who live in the national parks, who work there, farm there and are quickly removed from the eyesight of any visitors by the park rangers. Shifting between stage dialog, music, lectures and film, the trans-continental team from the theater companies Asedeva and Flinn Works create an alternative narrative of the history and present of safari tourism from a Tanzanian perspective. This makes clear that in many countries the origin of modern conservation is based on violent colonial appropriation and that the lives of animals are now still being prioritized above those of the local human population, which is excluded from large areas of the countryside.

Cast & Credits

Isack Abeneko (Performance and Choreography),
Susana Alonso (Light Design),
Lea Dietrich (Set & Costume Design),
Konradin Kunze (Performance and Artistic Direction),
Happiness Majige (Performance),
Andi Otto (Sound Design),
Jürgen Salzmann (Video/VR Design),
Sophia Stepf (Direction) // Marit Buchmeier / xplusdrei Produktionsbüro (Management Flinn Works),
Grischa Schwiegk / Drittmittelproduktionen (Production Management),
Gabriel Orio (Management Tanzania) // Mordecai Ogada, Laibor Moko,
Simone Schlindwein,
Bernhard Gißibl (Consultation)

The theater and performance group Flinn Works around director Sophia Stepf devises multi-perspectival theater productions on themes related to the globalized world. Asedeva (Art for Social and Economic Development in Africa) is a non-profit in Dar es Salaam, that organizes local cultural projects such as the annual dance festival Haba na Haba and produces its own artistic works worldwide. The two groups have worked together since 2016. During Theater der Welt 2023, Flinn Works will be awarded the Prize of the International Theatre Institute – German Centre.

Sponsored by: Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa des Landes Berlin, Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR, Between Bridges

In cooperation with TD Berlin

Photo: ©Lea Dietrich