Nalini Vidoolah Mootoosamy

The foriegner’s smile

A family of Indo-Mauritian immigrants is grappling with a crucial event: the Father has to go to the Municipality for the conferral of Italian citizenship. But this festive occasion soon turns into the risk, full of tension, of a social exam that puts the whole family on the ropes. In particular his son, Raoul, is torn between the need to help his father and the frustration of knowing that he is still a “foreigner”. The physical resemblance to the Father, to whom the title of the play makes a bitter reference, symbolizes for Raoul the mark of the discomfort and servility of his family in Italy. Despite the destabilizing apparitions of the young neighbour, Vikram, and the repeated prayers of the Mother to the god Ganesh, it will be Raoul’s colleague, Laura, in spite of the distrust towards the Italians, to bring a different energy to the usually closed house. The themes of linguistic discomfort and integration difficulties are represented in the opening and closing scenes, where the metaphorical reference to the “childhood” of the family is the sign of the inferiority, helpless and naive condition, in which all members of the family feel wrapped up by fate.

Lost&Found

In a detention center of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Europe, Agent 1 and Agent 2 interrogate X, a migrant, to identify and then repatriate him. X, however, does not speak, perhaps cannot speak; he knows what he risks. Life conditions inside the detention center plus Agent 1’s physical and psychological pressures push X to attempt to escape. Unfortunately, he is caught and locked up in an isolation cell, where he begins to show the first signs of psychological breakdown. Agent 1 takes advantage of this moment of weakness to extort him the data needed to send him back to his country. At the same time, at the airport of a non-European country, A and B, two young Europeans lose their luggage and are later arrested for their violent protests to the “Lost&Found” desk assistant. After being released, they try to save their vacation, even without their luggage. However, their journey is destined to become a tumultuous nightmare, ultimately leading to the breakdown of their relationship. It is not just a matter of clothes, but of “loss”, especially for B, who decides to return home to Europe. The two stories, which have continued in parallel up to this point, are destined to cross at the airport, this time in a European country, where B, meets Agent 1 while he is escorting X toward repatriation. For a few moments, B and X stare at each other. Then, in a sudden burst of unjustified anger, B attacks Agent 1, creating an opportunity for X to escape. But X instead of running away commits suicide. The play ends in a hospital, where a Doctor questions B about the reasons for his behavior, diagnosing him with “post-traumatic stress disorder”.  Agent 1 confronts the Doctor, who ends up revealing to him a dramatic detail regarding X’s death and his history.

 

Bleach me

This short play deals with racism in Italian society. A Black Italian woman, Ada, is currently dating a white Italian man, and falls pregnant with his child. Initially, she is reluctant to keep the baby because she doesn’t want her mixed-race child to have to face the harsh realities of growing up in Italy. However, she is increasingly persuaded that things can change for the better. Ada’s Mother, a first-generation migrant, is keen to impose Nigerian spiritual and superstitious practices on pregnant Ada, while young Ada is more aligned with Italian value systems. When the baby is born, it turns out her skin is very white, a lot whiter than everyone expected, which throws everyone in the family. Ada’s Mother blames Ada’s reluctance to engage with Nigerian traditions. The child’s skin colour, and the privilege that it carries,creates problems for the new family in ways that turn out to be too painful and tragic for Ada. This is a meditation on mixed-race family relations which carries a bitter message.