Performing Lampedusa in Miraculi: thoughts on theatre and research in a saturated field-site

In the summer of 2011 I carried out ethnographic research on the island of Lampedusa on the ways in which those who lose their lives on their journeys to Europe are buried and cared for by Lampedusans. In September 2013 I returned to the island with seven theatre makers from the devised theatre school Jacques Lecoq to carry out a month of collaborative fieldwork research. The main idea of the project was to employ anthropological methods, observation and immersion in people’s daily routines to develop a performance about life on this frontier island. By focusing on people’s memories and on understanding what the everyday involves at the edges of Europe, we wished to address bigger questions of belonging and responsibility. Our group fieldwork developed into a theatre show, Miraculi. This article explores the different stages of the project and examines the ethical questions and methods, both theatrical and anthropological, employed along the way, in the hope of contributing to thinking through the significance of artistic projects and collaborative research in over-mediatized and saturated field-sites.