"Before and After the Flight"

“THIS IS A PERFORMANCE ABOUT REFUGEES,
BUT NOT FOR REFUGEES” by Diana MAHU, 2nd year student, Journalism Department, International Free University of Moldova The history of five persons, who became refugees in the Republic of Moldova, served as a subject for the play “Before and After the Flight” presented at “Satiricus I.L.Caragiale” Theatre in Chisinau. Every time it gathers an overcrowded audience hall. The Director of the theatre and the producer of the play Sandu Grecu, Master of Arts, made a short briefing before the play and emphasized that it was written and staged further to the request from UNHCR Representation in Moldova. The author of the play, Dumitru Crudu, informed the public about the tragedy of this category of people, further to numerous meetings he had with a group of asylum seekers and refugees in Moldova organized by Djavid Paknehad, project coordinator of the Charity Centre for Refugees. Split families, destroyed houses, abandoned villages and towns, huge groups of children, women and old people on the way for a piece of bread – to settle in the end in another part of the world – these are the pictures stamped on the spectators’ memory. “I don’t want to be in their place…” – this is a voice in the hall. Me to – I say. And I am sure that nobody would like to live among strangers. The combination of stage play with video snapshots, presenting numerous groups of refugees from different countries of the world and the music accompanying the whole play (“forte” during the frames and “piano” during monologues), - everything taking place against the background of white scenery and multicolor lights – made sensitive the eyes of the actors and hearts of refugees from the auditorium and the other spectators – pupils, students and teachers, who do not feel the threat of danger caused by this phenomenon, but are aware of the existence of the problem from the Eastern region of the Republic of Moldova called Transdniestria. This sensibility shows once again that we are sensitive to other people’s pain and are always ready to render help. So, such expressions as “my grandfather died on the way… drinking dirty water”, “the lock in my apartment was replaced”, “and if this war never ends…”, “I can see worse and worse with my second eye, but I wish I could come back, wish to see my home and my abandoned child” – cannot leave you indifferent.This is true that we do not know what it is like “to sleep at a bus station”, “on school benches” or “in the park late in autumn”, however, we know how attractive the native home is, where we spent our childhood and how tragic is not to be able to come back home because “I don’t know where my home is”. Svetlana Cintaretu, II year student, confessed to me after the play: “I’m impressed. To tell you the truth, I even did not know about the existence of these people and, particularly, about the factors having made them to reach us. The play made me to see them otherwise. Not as martyrs, but as strong people, who do not give up. I was pleasantly surprised by white flight crowning the play, in spite of the fact that it was one of the few scenic movements”. It was the only metaphor, which made me unconsciously associate these people with birds, which always have to search for or to make themselves new nests”. Elena Stan, VII form pupil, adds: “I felt shivering and a fear passing through my blood. The music and the pictures of these people made me to feel stuck to the chair preventing me from taking my eyes off the scene. These people really suffer, not like us, who believe that if we cannot permit ourselves some luxury things – we are the unhappiest persons. There are greater difficulties”. The spectator refugees told us that they liked the play, although it made them sadder than they were before entering the hall – maybe, because of the scenes which made them experience once again the drama of their own lives? At the same time, they did not forget to smile to us sadly but significantly: “we go on living”. For somebody the culmination point of the play was metaphor of the flight, for others – a simple but endured statement: “this is a performance about refugees, but not for refugees”.