What is it like to live in a foreign place? Which clichés does one encounter? And how does one attempt to reconcile self-image with the demands of others? Merab Ninidze, a Georgian actor who has been living in Vienna and Berlin since the 1990s, takes up these questions in his improvised play. ‘Integration’ is a key word here, and one much used in political debates about immigration. However, in everyday life, integration is a little more complicated than it is on paper. A playful engagement with what is one’s own and what is foreign, stereotypes and truthful clichés, as well as attempts at constructive togetherness is the product of a collaboration between the two actors. Sounding out just how far one conforms to others’ expectations is just as central here as insight into one’s own identity through the experience of otherness.
Merab Ninidze (*1965) is an actor. He has lived and worked in Berlin and Vienna. In 2012 he appeared in the Austrian-German drama Invasion directed by Dito Tsintsadze.