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The 7 actors and 2 selected musicians, coming from Mali, Burkina Faso and Congo, led by the director Luca Fusi together with the playwright Ildeverd Meda, dedicated three weeks to improvisation, building stories, ensemble movements, choral situations around the theme of emigration at the Gambidi space in Ouagadougou. The starting point were the testimonies collected and filmed in Mali, Spain and Italy by Maurizio Schmidt.
For the actors it was a particularly creative period that allowed them to build the group and to recognize themselves in the project. The responsibility of addressing such an important issue for the communities and countries of West Africa is particularly felt: for an actor it is also an opportunity to reflect on the function of a committed theatre (better a committed art than art for art, as the actor Diarra Hibrahim says).

The set designer Sada Dao also followed the improvisations, obtaining the visual suggestions on which to base the creation of the set design, which must be functional, evocative and easy to transport and assemble, taking into account, among other things, that most of the performances will be outdoors, in daylight, with minimal equipment.
A normal condition for African theatre, and for the “theatre of awareness” in particular, but still a challenge, because of the importance of the visual component for the audience.

After the improvisation phase, the witness passed to Ildeverd Meda to write the text. Author, actor, director, Ildeverd is a pillar of the theatre of Burkina Faso, with countless texts represented and awarded, and a leading intellectual throughout West Africa. His texts deal with urgent issues and situations for African societies -and not only that- but Meda does not consider theatre a substitute for education or training, he believes that it can give life to words, address the heart, make them resonate in a human and sensitive dimension. Theatre can leave a trace, transform people’s perception of situations and problems.

This is the purpose of the new text, currently being tested and the show that will debut on January 20 at the Gambidi space. After the performances in Ouagadougou until January 25, the show’s caravan will then arrive in Mali, touching 4 different theatres in the capital Bamako, Kati and 14 villages in the municipalities of Diago, Digare, Yélékébougou and Kambila (inspections and preparatory meetings are underway). With this tour the project will therefore directly and physically reach its main target groups – young people from urban and especially rural communities, those most attracted by the migration adventure, and their families – by stimulating reflection, provoking discussion and suggesting insights into the risks of migration and the opportunities that the country offers.