As we all know, good substitute teachers are hard to find. And Uzay is a cut above the rest – but unfortunately, he isn’t real. In this extraordinary classroom-play, staged as a quasi-substitute lesson, Uzay takes the institution of the school as an occasion to talk about the pressure to assimilate and the way that young people are rendered invisible. What makes us into who we are? Who could we be if we didn’t always feel that we have to be as inconspicuous as a fish in a swarm? With imagination and playfulness, issues of racially motivated exclusion are discussed and the pupils in this classroom situation are encouraged to find their voices and make themselves heard.
Emel Aydoğdu developed this text with pupils from Year 9, and Karim Gamil will give his debut as a director in Hanover with his staging.