Different experiences of migration, an interpretation on common desperation: Under the Table

Abstract

This study examines a play that makes the universal characteristics of the phenomenon of migration visible through the art of theater and its interpretation in another culture twenty-two years after it was written. Written by French cartoonist, screenwriter, novelist and story writer, poster and stage designer Roland Topor in 1994, Under the Table bears the traces of the immigration experience that the author did not personally experience, but that his family was exposed to. In this play, selfish Parisian bourgeois who have negative prejudices against immigrants, a poor intellectual who is devoted to universal values and has high empathy skills, and the immigrants who are compassionate, honest and good-hearted are discussed. This play, which was written in 1994, maintains its currency in 2016 and in 2022, when this study was written, because of the universal characteristics of migration. Topor's text, which was written in 14 episodes, has been transformed into 7 parts, in addition to the 5 characters in the original text, 8 parts with a choir of 11 people and songs and dances have been added. In this study, the interpretation of the text in 2016, which criticizes the image of migration and the fact that immigrants have to live in inhumane conditions, with bitter sarcasm, is presented in detail.