shehadistan

Während in diesen Landstrichen grad noch die erhitzte Debatte um Critical Whiteness, Deutungshoheit, Radikalität und empfindlich gestörtes Weißsein und das Ende der Komfortzone auf Hochtouren läuft, grätschen nun dankenswerterweise Alliierte zumindest schon mal in die hier im Namen der Kunstfreiheit propagierte „Blackface“-Unpraxis hinein und reden Tacheles.

Bruce Norris, Pulitzerpreisträger und Autor des Stückes „Clybourne Park“, untersagte dem Deutschen Theater in Berlin, sein Stück aufzuführen. Auch hier sollte wieder ein angemalter Weißer einen Schwarzen spielen. Nachzulesen ist diese freudige Nachricht auf publikative.org, und Norris fasst zusammen:

„As it turns out, blackface has been and continues to be a widespread practice on the German stage. German actors of African descent are routinely passed over for roles explicitly designated for them in some of the largest theatres in the country. This is weakly defended as either a director’s prerogative or a matter of “artistic choice” – and yet, when questioned, no one could offer me an equivalent example of a white German actor having lost a role to a black actor in whiteface.

Now, normally I don’t meddle in the cultural politics of other countries, but when my work and the work of my colleagues – other playwrights – is misrepresented, I do. When we write plays, among other things, we are creating employment for working actors, and often we intend to employ a specific diverse body. Whatever rationale the German theatre establishment might offer for their brazenly discriminatory practice is of no interest to me. For, as little power as we playwrights have, we always retain one small power and that is the power to say no. To say, no thank you, I’d rather not have my work performed in Germany, today, under those conditions.“