Between Uncertainty, Submission and Hope - Experiences and Reflections on Waiting by Theater Migrants 1 Berenika Szymanski-Düll (München) While flight and exile are primarily associated with movement, this article aims to examine their static side, focusing on the element of waiting in the refugee and exile processes of theatre migrants. Examining the memoirs of the playwright, theatre manager and journalist, Heinrich Börnstein (1805 - 1892), and the documentary stage production What They Want to Hear (2018, Kammerspiele München) by the Argentinian director Lola Arias, it seeks to identify the subjective experiences of waiting of individual theatre makers and asks how they are configured in different settings and over time, in specific geographic and political locations. These subjective experiences of theatre migrants viewed through the analytical lens of waiting provide - as will be shown - crucial insights into social organising principles and power hierarchies. Are you currently waiting for something? Perhaps you are waiting for COVID-19 to disappear and for the world to get back to how it used to be. Maybe you are waiting for important news, the results of a medical test, or for the eagerly awaited email telling you whether the research proposal that you submitted months ago has been approved. Or maybe you are just waiting for a parcel with new shoes or a new jacket. Humans are ‘ homines expectantes ’ . They are nearly always waiting. Waiting is a daily experience; an experience that we cannot escape. Nevertheless, our experiences of waiting differ, depending on our emotional state, our situation and, of course, what we are actually waiting for. Waiting for a parcel with new shoes or a new jacket is thus connoted and experienced differently to waiting for existential news, such as a cancer diagnosis, the end of a war or the abatement of a pandemic. In this article, I want to examine experiences of waiting related to flight and exile. At first sight, this may seem paradoxical because flight and exile as forms of migration are, by definition, associated with movement and relocation and thus perceived as a dynamic mode. On closer inspection, however, flight and exile also have another intrinsic contrasting element: non-movement, stasis, inaction - or in other words: waiting. Thus, we frequently read - especially in recent weeks, months and years - newspaper headlines such as: “ Sea rescuers wait for a harbour with more than 800 migrants ” 2 or “ Catastrophic situation at Poland ’ s border: thousands waiting ” 3 . This juxtaposition of movement and non-movement thus reveals a crucial aspect of flight and exile, namely the mutual intertwining of time and space. Migration processes are therefore not only to be understood spatially as mobility of people across borders and geographic regions; they also involve an inherent temporal component. This temporal component is multilayered and complex, 4 it is an inter-play between multiple tempos. It includes both fast elements - hurrying, hasting, rushing - and those elements that allow us to feel the slowness of time. Waiting is one of the latter and in this context can be even seen as a particular engagement with time. But what does all this have to do with theatre? Forum Modernes Theater, 33/ 1-2, 89 - 98. Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ FMTh-2022-0007 In my research on theatre migrations in the 19 th century, 5 I noticed that experiences of waiting are a recurring topic in historical ego-documents of various theatre migrants 6 . And I observed that waiting is also mentioned today with regard to the refugee crisis when theatre makers report on their experiences of flight and exile in interviews, biographies or documentary theatre productions. For this purpose, I am interested in looking more closely at how theatre migrants reflect on the experience of waiting. Which aspects are addressed? Which are discussed? Can we identify historical parallels between the different experiences of waiting in the 19 th century and today? Conceiving waiting both as a social phenomenon and as an analytical perspective on migration processes and practices, 7 this article aims to explore the experiences of waiting of theatre migrants and asks how they are configured in different settings and over time, in particular geographic and political locations. The experiences on which I focus here are based on the study of the memoirs of the playwright, theatre manager and journalist, Heinrich Börnstein (1805 - 1892), and on the examination of the plight of refugees in the documentary stage production What They Want to Hear 8 by the Argentinian director Lola Arias. This production was chosen because it involves refugees and their stories on stage and also incorporates the experiences of theatre practitioners who have fled and who are also involved in the performance. These subjective experiences of individual theatre migrants examined here and viewed through the analytical lens of waiting demonstrate - as will be elaborated in the following - multiple forms of waiting and how these individuals encounter them. They also provide crucial insights into social organising principles and power hierarchies. Interruptions “ Both my organism and my society impose upon me, and upon my inner time, certain sequences of events that involve waiting ” , state the sociologists Peter L. Berger und Thomas Luckmann. 9 Waiting is thus defined as an interval, as a sort of pause between events. These intervals can, as the quotation indicates, have natural causes - for instance, in pregnancy - or can occur for social reasons. The intervals with social causes are of particular interest in the context of flight and exile. Sociological literature differentiates here between short and long periods as two basic modes of waiting. A short period of waiting is defined as waiting related to chronologically close everyday events that are generally of minor importance. This waiting takes place in a single, self-contained process. In contrast, a long period of waiting is waiting which is related to more significant, chronologically more distant objectives and which represents an existential mode of being. A long period of waiting thus extends over a long time in which the waiting is interrupted by (other) activities. 10 In the context of processes of flight and exile, there are long periods of waiting with numerous interruptions and thus with many intervals. Heinrich Börnstein provides a good insight into such processes in his memoirs Fünfundsiebzig Jahre in der Alten und Neuen Welt (engl. Seventy-five Years in the Old and New World). Here he describes how he had to leave Europe with his family after the suppression of the February Revolution in 1848 and - like many intellectuals in his situation 11 - set out for exile in the USA: We had been ready for the journey for a week, and with all our furniture, beds and utensils long since sold, we camped miserably in the room of a little hôtel garni, every day expecting to be summoned to board our ship [ … ]. 90 Berenika Szymanski-Düll In the last week of January a letter arrived there from a shipping company [ … ] which told us to come at once to Le Havre [ … ]. Of course we did not have to be summoned twice and, being impatient to get underway, we left with the night train for Le Havre on the twenty-eighth, arriving on the twentyninth at dawn. We went to our shipping company [ … ], wanting to go on board at once [ … ]. But [ … ] the ship was not ready to leave, for freight was still being loaded [ … ]. 12 The interval described here between setting off for exile in the USA and the actual departure is, as can be seen in the quotation, interrupted by several events, including, for instance, selling their belongings or setting out for Le Havre. At the same time, this waiting interval is marked by uncertainty because of the vague timing of their final departure. Börnstein and all the other passengers of the three-master, the ‘ Espindola ’ - some of whom were summoned to Le Havre two weeks before Börnstein - do not know when exactly the ship will leave, but every day they have to be ready to depart. They have to wait. Börnstein characterises this period as “ idleness and boredom ” 13 . The uncertainty of this waiting is, however, finite. After all, Börnstein and his fellow travellers know that the journey will start soon, that it must start. On 4 February 1849, the ‘ Espindola ’ finally sets sail with 280 emigrants on board. The experience of waiting, which they had already gathered on land, continues during the journey at sea - the interval between their actual departure and their arrival in the USA. While Börnstein initially describes this phase as “ dolce far niente ” 14 , the mood of the passengers clearly declines during the course of the crossing, with Börnstein later talking of “ deadly boredom and inactivity ” . 15 Although they attempt to give the days structure with a routine consisting of “ cooking, sleeping and eating ” 16 , as the provisions become more and more scarce and, in some cases, even run out, the lack of activity has a demoralising effect. But there is still hope. Not only hope that the waiting will soon be over, but also that it will be over in America, their destination, their new home. 17 Börnstein writes, “ This was one of our favorite occupations in these idle, boring hours. As often as we sat together [ … ], we built castles in the air. ” 18 The waiting, the interval during the crossing, thus acts - as becomes evident here - not only as a spatial transition between the place of departure and the country of destination, in which departure and arrival are combined. This interval is also a crucial experience of time, a state in which memories, current experiences and visions of the future are combined, but in which hopes are also confronted with fears. Thus, although Börnstein ’ s voyage to the USA was certainly privileged compared to the sea voyages of refugees today, the sea still held dangers and it was by no means certain that they would arrive at their destination. When Börnstein finally disembarks on 8 April after 62 days at sea, he understandably feels a sense of release: Only one who has experienced it himself knows how enervating and demoralizing a long sea voyage can be to people, how in the end there is only one ruling thought and desire, which is to reach the distant shore. Such a person can grasp the joyous feelings of release and reawakened hope and energy we felt on setting foot on American soil. 19 In addition to the “ joyous feelings of release ” , the word “ energy ” is striking here. The arrival and the end of waiting release energy, which, after the long period of inactivity at sea, wants to be converted into productivity. Refugees today share these experiences with Börnstein. If we look at the images of arrival in recent years, which were disseminated in the media, we see - despite visible traces of the exhausting journey they have under- 91 Experiences and Reflections on Waiting by Theater Migrants taken - faces that show relief, joy and hope at the same time. But what happens after the arrival? Is the period of waiting over? Subjection to External Time Structures The Argentinian director Lola Arias tackled these questions by examining, in conversations with refugees, activists, social workers, lawyers and psychologists, what lies in store for the refugees after their arrival. The result of her research is a documentary theatre production with the title What They Want to Hear, which was premiered on 22 June 2018 at the Münchner Kammerspiele. This production is based on the true story of the Syrian archaeologist, Raaed Al Kour, who left his home town of Daraa in 2013 because of the war and arrived in Germany in January 2014, where he applied for asylum. Raaed Al Kour is also on stage in this production, 20 where he shares his story with the audience. His story is interwoven with stories of the Syrian actors from the Open Border Ensemble of the Kammerspiele 21 , the actor Hassan Akkouch, who was born in Lebanon and fled with his parents and siblings as a child, and the Kammerspiele technician Sajad Hosayni, who fled from Afghanistan as a minor - they too are present on stage. Together these stories show the hope of a safe life and of a new beginning, which was already clearly addressed by Börnstein, coupled with energy, which, however - as the production clearly shows - are determined by various waiting intervals, particularly due to the mills of bureaucracy. Thus Walter Benjamin ’ s statement that “ the more life is regulated by administration, the more people will have to learn to wait ” 22 seems to determine the processes on the stage. Arias also uses the stage design to clearly illustrate this aspect (Fig. 1). On the stage, we see a room or, more precisely, an office, equipped with a desk, chairs, computers, houseplants and a map on the wall. All very neat and tidy. It is an imitation of an office of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (in German: Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge), where the hearings for all those who have applied for asylum in Germany take place. 23 The hearings are the only chance for the applicants to present their life stories and the reasons why they should be granted asylum in a convincing way. The applicant sits opposite the so-called decision-maker (in German: der Entscheider or die Entscheiderin) and must answer questions about his/ her background, the course of his/ her flight, the currency in his/ her native country and the reasons for the application for asylum. The decision-maker is the person who determines the subsequent fate - the existence - of the refugee. Also present is an interpreter, on the accuracy of whose translation the fate of the applicant equally depends. 24 The protagonist, Raaed Al Khour, is summoned to his hearing at 8 a.m. on 11 February 2014. It is day 25 of his stay in Germany, which is revealed to the viewer by a projection on to the screen mounted above the office. A sleepless night lies behind him. On the stage, there is now a waiting room (26: 23). To his surprise, Al Khour is not alone; other applicants are also waiting. As it later transpires, they were all summoned to their hearing at 8 a.m., although it is technically impossible for all the hearings to take place at the same time with the same decision-maker. Those who are lucky do not have to wait for long. Those who are unlucky spend several hours on uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room. Anyone who enquires about when it will be his or her turn receives an unfriendly response. The scene is dominated by uncertainty and clearly shows that anyone who is forced to 92 Berenika Szymanski-Düll wait by others experiences a feeling of inferiority. This is apparent in the above quotation by Berger and Luckmann, in which the verb “ impose ” articulates an external power in intervals with social causes, the “ subjection [ … ] of the individual to external time structures ” , as Andreas Göttlich states, getting to the heart of the matter. 25 The example of Börnstein also illustrates this kind of subjection to external time structures: If we remember, Börnstein reported that the ship was initially not able to set sail from Le Havre because freight was still being loaded. However, it turned out that they were, in fact, not waiting for any freight. Börnstein writes in his memoirs: In truth no freight at all had been loaded, for the ship carried ballast, and the only freight consisted of emigrants and their baggage. For it is a policy of such harbors to retain emigrants in their hands as long as possible, so that they leave a portion of their money behind in the harbor town. 26 Here waiting is deliberate, a consciously designed process; this point becomes apparent from the above quotation and, repeatedly, in the production What They Want to Hear? in various degrees and variations. In the process, the existential radicalism of waiting is expressed, for instance, in the autobiographical monologue of the actor Hassan Akkouch, who - in tears - remembers his own deportation as a child: When you get deported, they usually come in the morning. Around 4 a.m. Anyone can be deported. Children and adults. People who have been in Germany for a month, and Fig. 1: Lola Arias, What They Want to Hear, photo: Thomas Aurin. 93 Experiences and Reflections on Waiting by Theater Migrants people who have been here for over 15 years. I was born in Lebanon. When I was two years old, we came to Germany because of the civil war. I was ‘ tolerated ’ during my whole childhood, I didn ’ t have a residency permit. And when I was 14, so after living in Germany for 12 years, we were deported. They come to your apartment and order you to pack your stuff. They follow you everywhere, even to the bathroom. The men accompany the boy, the women with the girls, so you don ’ t hurt yourself. Downstairs the bus is waiting to bring you to a police station next to the airport. There you wait in a deportation cell. Then you continue by another federal bus, they take you directly to the airplane. In this federal border control bus, the official makes sure you don ’ t hurt yourself, holding a machine gun. You don ’ t enter the plane through the gates like normal passengers, instead they drive you straight to the plane and you are the first to board the plane. You sit in the last row, and every knows about it. The stewardess, the pilot, everyone knows. Usually the flight is not directly to your destination. In our case, we had to take a flight from Berlin ‘ Tegel ’ to ‘ Atatürk Airport ’ in Istanbul. We had to wait there for 12 hours, couldn ’ t change any money and had nothing to eat. Five kids and one mother. After about 10 hours, out of pity an employee from the airport brought us McDonald ’ s. Then it continues: the next plane. Again we had to sit in the very back. And then we arrived in Lebanon and the first thing they did was interrogate us. 27 Akkouch ’ s words, which radically portray the experiences of being dependent and at the mercy of others and which express the existential element of waiting, mirror Pierre Bourdieu ’ s reflections on waiting, which he describes in his Pascalian Meditations on the connection between time and power and which he defines as a form of power. “ The all-powerful is he who does not wait but who makes others wait. ” 28 Power thus emanates from those who dispose of other people ’ s time and impose time structures on them. Those who wait must submit to the imposed time structures, time structures, which are in no way predictable and which leave those waiting in suspense for months or even years. According to Bourdieu, power consists in “ the power to make oneself unpredictable and deny other people any reasonable anticipation, to place them in total uncertainty by offering no scope to their capacity to predict ” . 29 Hassan Akkouch, his mother and his siblings did not know what would happen to them during their deportation. They were at the mercy of whatever happened. This also applies to the case of Raaed Al Kour, as we learn during the production: In Between The 25 days that we see projected on to the screen in the scene in the waiting room become 1620 days, although the process of waiting has not been concluded at this point in the production. It is Al Kour ’ s bad luck that he was arrested in Bulgaria during his flight from Syria. Here the police used force to take his fingerprints, meaning that, according to the Dublin Regulation, he applied for asylum in Bulgaria. For this reason, the first decision of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees dated 14 January 2015 (nearly a year after the hearing) informs him that he will be sent back to this country. The situation for refugees in Bulgaria is precarious; they are persecuted and beaten and some have to live on the street - Al Khour personally experienced all this and it caused him to carry on to Germany. For this reason, he does not want to go back to Bulgaria and has, with the help of a lawyer, appealed against the decision. Since then he has been waiting - without a residence status. He does not have the right of residence or a right to stay; he is merely ‘ tolerated ’ . It is not only the threat of deportation that hangs 94 Berenika Szymanski-Düll over him; he is also condemned to continue to wait. He may not move to another place, and, like all other refugees in his situation, he is not permitted to work. This kind of politico-legal exclusion is related to concepts such as liminality or limbo, especially because, as research shows, refugees consider themselves in a state of liminality or limbo while waiting. The anthropologists Christine M. Jacobsen and Marry-Anne Karlsen explain this as follows: In much migration research, these concepts are used to communicate a sense of temporal disjuncture, suspension and stagnation. The concept of liminality, as theorised initially by Arnold van Gennep (1909/ 1960) and Victor Turner (1967), refers to the position of being effectively betwixt and between categories of classification and has, as such, easily lent itself to analysis of migrants that do not fit into the categorical order of the nation-state system (Malkki, 1995; Menjivar, 2006; Brun & Fábos, 2015). [ … ] The term limbo is Latin for ‘ in or on the edge or border ’ and was initially introduced by Christian theologians to describe a state or place in the afterlife for souls who deserved neither salvation nor damnation. Sometimes it was thought of as the waiting room to Purgatory (Capps & Carlin, 2010). In more recent times, limbo is used to refer more generally to an intermediate and indeterminate state of confinement, abandonment and oblivion. 30 This state is an in-between space, not this side, not that side, not inside, not outside. Being stuck in this ‘ non-space ’ has a strong effect on the subject ’ s own status, as Al Kour ’ s case demonstrates. The energy that he felt on arrival is suppressed by the clauses and articles of bureaucracy. Inaction and idleness tear at his existence and make him feel that he is useless. According to Bourdieu, the brevity and thus the importance that is accorded to a person ’ s time determines the social value of that person. 31 Lola Arias ’ production, which reflects the subjective experience of waiting using the scope of documentary theatre, thus constantly confronts us with the question of this value, and builds a bridge to reality, which impressively shows that Al Kour ’ s fate is not an exceptional case. Almost all refugees today suffer the same fate, as proven by research on the situation of recent refugees. This is what we read, for instance, in an article published in Social Science & Medicine in 2018, 32 which is based on qualitative interviews with refugees in the regions of Attica, Epirus and Samos between November 2016 and February 2017: Being stranded in Greece and having no clear idea about whether, when and where one would be able to move, affected the refugees ’ daily lives. Some spoke of their life as only consisting of sleeping and eating. Instead of being an integrated part of their lives, the experience in Greece was one of waiting for life to resume, pending a resolution on their asylum case [ … ]. 33 The narratives of the interviews clearly show that the waiting described here correlates with the experiences of Akkouch and Al Kour. The externally imposed waiting for a decision on their future, and the resulting imposed inactivity in isolation from the rest of society, create feelings not only of insecurity and powerlessness, but also of worthlessness and social marginalisation. 34 As the authors of the study sum up, this leads to the experience of “ deep psychosocial distress and social suffering ” . 35 Furthermore, this situation limits people ’ s ability to make long-term plans and to envision their future. 36 Jacobsen and Karlsen point out that when the concepts of liminality and limbo are used, there is a danger of giving the impression of a closed and consequently static situation in which people passively wait for a better life. 37 After all, the waiting here cannot be brought to an end by one ’ s own action. The subject is subject to power structures that lie outside of 95 Experiences and Reflections on Waiting by Theater Migrants him or herself. Thus waiting is often experienced as a timeless or endless present. 38 Nevertheless, as the example of Arias ’ protagonist also shows, this long period of waiting can at least be interrupted by one ’ s own agency in terms of an enforced orientation towards the present. Rael Al Khour does not give up. He starts to fight against waiting, to break it down again and again with activity, to turn the unproductivity into productivity, to pass through bureaucracy ’ s loopholes: He starts volunteering for refugee organisations, acts as an interpreter for other refugees, helps to make their arrival easier, he writes - poems and texts - and he participates as an actor in the theatre production What They Want to Hear. At this point it would be important to know whether Heinrich Börnstein was also in such a state of limbo after his arrival in the USA. Looking at his memoirs, such a state is not apparent. Quite the contrary: After a short stay in New Orleans, Börnstein set off for St. Louis and was able to establish a new existence in quite a short time. The political conditions of his entry into the USA in 1849 were in fact completely different from those of Al Kour in 2014 in Germany. Hence he writes concerning the situation of the political refugees in the United States: The first to come over were received as heroes, freedom-fighters, and martyrs of the people ’ s cause by the German Americans who had long been resident in the country. They were offered every possible assistance, and everyone tried to find them support, a position or craft. 39 Thus, it also becomes evident in his memoirs how organised Börnstein ’ s arrival was: The entry of the ‘ Espindola ’ at the port was already signalled by telegraph, the arrivals were able to secure accommodation with meals included in a boarding house for immigrants without any problems, and letters from home were waiting for them at the consulate. 40 Summary Migration, which is, by definition, perceived as movement, as a dynamic mode, also involves the reverse: stasis, non-movement, waiting. Consequently, the juxtaposition of these elements reveals a crucial aspect: the mutual intertwining of time and space. Flight and exile are thus not only to be understood spatially and geographically, but must also be considered in terms of time, which is multi-layered and complex, an interplay between several tempos. The examples presented in this article, which come from different centuries and thus different political and social contexts, give us some insight into this waiting from the perspective of the experiences of theatre migrants. In both cases, these subjective experiences expose social mechanisms and provide insights not only into multiple forms of waiting but also into social organising principles and power hierarchies. The examples given here can be regarded as having parallels: In both cases, waiting appears as an interruption of time, an interruption that, on the one hand, goes hand in hand with hope for a new life and on the other hand - precisely through this hope - is able to release energies for this new beginning. But waiting also reveals negative sides of this interruption, as is evident in both the case of Heinrich Börnstein and in the biographical experiences in Lola Aria ’ s documentary production: Thus, waiting not only shows itself as a process consciously designed by others that forces those waiting to submit to external time structures, but it simultaneously reveals itself to be a state of insecurity and dependency to which those waiting are subjected in processes of flight and exile and which they experience as 96 Berenika Szymanski-Düll power. Nevertheless, it must be noted that there are also differences between the examples explored here, which correlate in particular with the different experience of time in the process of waiting. While waiting in the case of Heinrich Bernstein is described as foreseeable and thus finite due to a completely different situation for refugees arriving in the USA in the mid-nineteenth century, Rael Al Khour is in an entirely different situation in Germany in the twenty-first century: He is caught in limbo, betwixt and between, a state that lasts so long for him that it seems infinite and timeless, and which has severe consequences for his self-esteem. It cannot be predicted when this state will end. However, does the waiting stop as soon as a refugee receives the right to stay? Not necessarily, as Bertolt Brecht, who was still waiting when he was in exile, waiting to be able to return to Germany, reveals: Restlessly we wait thus, as near as we can to the frontier awaiting the day of return, every smallest alteration observing beyond the boundary, zealously asking every arrival, forgetting nothing and giving up nothing, and also not forgiving anything which happened, forgiving nothing. 41 Notes 1 I received an important impulse for writing this article from the event “ Migration, Movement, Waiting: On Dynamics between Stagnation and Progression ” , which took place at the Center for Advanced Studies, LMU Munich in September 2019 as part of the research focus “ Globals Dis/ Connections ” . Furthermore, I would like to thank my colleagues in the IFTR-Working Group “ Historiography ” for important advices, as I submitted the article for discussion. This article is part of the ERC project T- MIGRANTS that has received funding from the European Research Council under the grant agreement No. 850742. 2 “ Seenotretter warten mit mehr als 800 Migranten auf Hafen ” , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6.11.2021. 3 “ Katastrophale Lage an Polens Grenze: Tausende Warten ” , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 11.11.2021. 4 Christine M. Jacobsen and Marry-Anne Karlsen, “ Unpacking the Temporalities of Irregular Migration ” , in: Christine M. Jacobsen, Marry-Anne Karlsen and Shahram Khosravi (eds.), Waiting and the Temporalities of Irregular Migration, London and New York 2021, pp. 1 - 19, here p. 1. 5 For more information, see: www.t-migrants. com. 6 I use the term “ theatre migrants ” to describe all persons who have migrated one or more times and who worked in or for the theatre before their emigration and / or afterwards. This includes actors, directors, dancers, singers, but also prompters and technicians. 7 Cf. Jacobsen and Karlsen, “ Unpacking the Temporalities of Irregular Migration ” , p. 2 8 For a short description of the production, see: https: / / lolaarias.com/ what-they-want-t o-hear/ [accessed 13.8.2021]. 9 Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, London 1966, p. 29. 10 Cf. Andreas Göttlich, “ Gemeinsam Warten. Zur Sozialisierbarkeit eines Grundmodus menschlicher Zeiterfahrung ” , in: Sociologia Internationalis 1 - 2 (2016), pp. 1 - 25; Nadine Benz, (Erzählte) Zeit des Wartens. Semantiken und Narrative eines temporalen Phänomens, Göttingen 2013, p. 50. 11 In his memoirs, he writes: “ Thousands upon thousands of refugees who had compromised themselves in Germany and Austria in the movement of stormy 1848, now pursued and threatened by the iron fist of victorious reaction, had been fortunate enough to escape to America. Most of them had not only given up positions, professions or income, but also lost all they possessed, 97 Experiences and Reflections on Waiting by Theater Migrants saving nothing but their naked lives; [ … ]. ” Heinrich Börnstein, Fünfundsiebzig Jahre in der Alten und Neuen Welt. Memoiren eines Unbedeutenden, vol. 2, Leipzig 1881, p.100. 12 Ibid., pp. 1 - 2. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. p. 10. 15 Ibid. p. 13. 16 Ibid. P. 7. 17 Ibid. p. 17. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid. p. 23. 20 Although Raaed Al Kour is not trained in a theatre profession, he is understood in this essay to be a theatre migrant because he participates as an actor in the professional theatre production focused on here. See also endnote 6. 21 The Open Border Ensemble of the Kammerspiele was a project under the artistic direction of Matthias Lilienthal, in the context of which six artists of immigrant descent were engaged at the Kammerspiele after an open call and participated in various projects. For more information, see: https: / / www.kultur stiftung-des-bundes.de/ de/ projekte/ bild_un d_raum/ detail/ open_border_ensemble.html [accessed 13.8.2021]. 22 Walter Benjamin, Das Passagen-Werk, Frankfurt a. M. 1983, p. 178. 23 The stage design was created by Dominic Huber. 24 Michaela Steiger plays the role of the decision-maker and Hassan Akkouch plays the role of the interpreter in this scene. 25 Göttlich, “ Warten - Gesellschaftliche Dimension und kulturelle Formen ” , p. 3. 26 Börnstein, Fünfundsiebzig Jahre in der Alten und Neuen Welt, p. 2. 27 Transcript of the video recording: 1: 03: 36. 28 Pierre Bourdieu, Pascalian Meditations, Stanford 2000, p. 228. (Time and power). 29 Ibid. p. 228. 30 Jacobsen and Karlsen, “ Unpacking the Temporalities of Irregular Migration ” , p. 5. 31 Bourdieu, Pascalian Meditations. 32 See Pia Juul Bjertruo et al., “ A life in waiting: Refugees ’ mental health and narratives of social suffering after European Union border closures in March 2016 ” , in: Social Science & Medicine 215 (2018), pp. 53 - 60, http: / / doi.org/ 10.1016/ j.socscimed.2018.08 .040, [accessed 13.8.2021]. 33 Ibid. p. 57. 34 Ibid. p. 56 - 58. 35 Ibid., p. 59. 36 Cf. Jacobsen and Karlsen, “ Unpacking the Temporalities of Irregular Migration ” , p. 8. 37 Cf. ibid. 38 Ibid. 39 Börnstein, Fünfundsiebzig Jahre in der Alten und Neuen Welt, p. 100. 40 Ibid., pp. 23 - 29. 41 Bertolt Brecht, Über die Bezeichnung Emigranten; translated by Stephen Spender. 98 Berenika Szymanski-Düll