We, The “Exotics”

Christine Matschke

What if Africa were America and the United States and Europe countries of the Global South? And what if white skin were a disadvantage, a trait of poverty and prejudice? This is the idea taken up by the Djibouti author Abdourahman A. Waberi in his satirical parable “In the United States of Africa”. Constanza Macras’ new piece at Volksbühne Berlin also turns the familiar world order upside down. In “The West”, the Berlin choreographer stages visual landscapes on whose frontiers the power and influence of Europe on “the others” within the framework of Western capitalist structures is humorously deconstructed. Macras, who conjured up the spirit of the past in her debut at the Volksbühne, loves criticizing global social grievances. If “The West” is a little less under the weather than “Der Palast”, her first Volksbühne evening, this would surely not only be conscious of tradition, but also forward-looking.