Join PMA for a production of I Want a Country, a play by Andreas Flourakis, translated by Eleni Drivas, and directed by Samuel Buggeln, Artistic and Executive Director of The Cherry Arts. The show will take place in the Flex Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, on Friday, October 24, at 7:30 pm; Saturday, October 25, at 7:30 pm; Friday, October 31, at 7:30 pm; and Saturday, November 1, at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm. Get your free tickets here.
What do you do when the country you considered yourself at home in suddenly seems to be falling apart? What even makes it the same country that it was in the past? What is the status of the migrant who no longer has a country? In general: are we all doomed, or is there hope?
In the decade since it was written, I Want a Country has been produced over 25 times around the world. Since its debut in London, the play has had productions in New York, Greece, Mexico, Germany, India, Colombia, Peru, Switzerland, and beyond. This playful, passionate, unlikely script has rapidly become one of the most important pieces of international theater writing in the last decade.
I Want a Country is an “open text”. Dialogue is not assigned to characters but emerges from the ensemble, which can take any size. “So what this has meant for our process is that it's very involved!” said director Samuel Buggeln. “The cast and I start sitting around a big table, and read the scenes running the lines around the circle. Then we slowly start to pull the scenes apart, finding the "currents"— do there seem to be different viewpoints emerging? Different "teams"? Individual character voices? Then, we start to assign lines and put the scene on its feet. And in the end, what seemed like a kind of mess of short random thoughts becomes a real, exciting, dramatic scene!”
“Ι Want a Country was written in 2012, as a response to the Greek economic and social crisis that erupted after 2009,” said playwright Andreas Flourakis. “Cuts to wages and pensions, rising unemployment, especially among young people, and the shrinking of social services created deep social inequalities and widespread insecurity. From 2010 onwards, many Greeks chose to leave for wealthier countries, in search of better working conditions and prospects… I can say with certainty that, in the minds of Greeks at that time, there was a longing for a better homeland, a fairer country. This was the spark that inspired the creation of this piece.”
“I hope audiences will come away from this production having had the chance to think about some of the forces underlying the massive phenomenon of global migration in our time,” said Buggeln, “and also thinking in a local way about what makes a country, and what makes us feel at home—or not— in our own country. When people no longer feel at home, or safe, in their country, ought they to try to fix it, or to leave, and what are the different forces that affect those questions?”
The play has shown a unique quality over the years,” said Flourakis. “In a way, it absorbs the issues and struggles of a nation in the time it is performed. It works as a mirror of social and economic instability across the world, reflecting the ongoing search for a place where people can live with justice, dignity, and happiness. Yet that place often feels like a utopia, a dream, an unattainable paradise. Perhaps it is worth striving more from within, fighting for the changes we believe can make our own homeland a better place for ourselves and for our children. The play also reminds us of our duty to treat migrants with humanity, for all the obvious reasons, but also because one day, we might find ourselves in their position.”
Listen to PMA Podcast Episode 70 with Sam Buggeln, Director of I WANT A COUNTRY
This event is co-sponsored by the Einaudi Center for International Studies.
Sam Buggeln is the founding Artistic and Executive Director of The Cherry Arts, as well as an award-winning theater translator and one of the US’s preeminent directors of new international plays. Learn more about his work.
Andreas Flourakis is a playwright. He has written more than thirty works for theater, which have been translated into many languages. Learn more about his work.
