Swedish Performing Arts for an International Audie
nce 2016 1
TEATER DOS AND JÄDERS TEATER Fågelskrämman (“The
Scarecrow”) is a performance combining Afghan and Swedish narrative traditions. The ensemble’s experience in mime, clownery, folk music, and storytelling provides the essential ingredients of the performance – a playful tale imagined with the aid of music, dance, and puppetry. A tale that children can easily feel part of. The production discusses many fundamentally serious themes from a child’s perspective, such as the challenges faced by refugees and host countries in terms of coexistence, social integration, and mutual understanding. This is portrayed through the way the scarecrow and the bird queen relate to the birds and the people. The overarching questions raised by the piece concern our responsibilities as fellow humans, and the choices we can make in order to understand and help others. What unites us as humans? How can we appreciate diversity and find common ground? The shared experiences of the director and the author, having worked with these issues in war-torn Afghanistan, are an invaluable asset to the production. We are creating performing art designed to be an integrative tool in a society encountering more and more people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Katarina Persdotter Jäder | info@jadersteater.se | www.jadersteater.se Photo: Leif Person.