It’s evening. Everything is calm. A car brakes just in front of me, too close. I want to resolve this without violence…If one wants to get through life, one has to have positive and negative sides in terms of boundaries. Territory is a space within a space. I share my territory with my mother and brother.

In Territory, four protagonists talk about their journey: How they became who they are today; the spaces they have passed through; the struggles they have fought with themselves and others, at  work, on the street, in their own families. Growing up in Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Wedding – how does that work? Berlin is a tough city. In Germany, social borders are more impermeable than in almost any other European country. The society of this city defines the spaces: who goes where, who meets whom and where “with us” is. If you want to get ahead, you have to risk something. Enter spaces where you have never been before, where no one expects you. And then?

Territory is a documentary theatre. It is the first theatre production by actor, author and director Atilla Oener at Ballhaus Naunynstraße. In the season 2020/21 he took part in the writing workshop Unconventional Signs – neue postmigrantische Theatertexte (new postmigrant theatre texts) as an author. Excerpts from his play Im Strom were presented in a reading at the beginning of October.