This chapter outlines the role of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in the creation of Arrival Cities: Hanoi, a piece of experimental music theatre with documentary film. The piece seeks a new format for politically informed theatre which is responsive to the challenges of a globalized society. A central concept for the dramaturgy was to make the individual memories of the performers a cornerstone for each situation. Hence, similarly to how the script in verbatim theatre is drawn from interviews with people’s experience of a real-life situation (Forsyth & Megson, 2009), the dramaturgy emerged, as it were, from the creation of situations that would evoke the lived experience of the performers. The stage is set up so that the three performers either play their instruments or tell stories in a position at the front of the stage, where three microphones on stands are placed. The storytelling was developed from memories of encounters with people in migration zones in Hanoi, but would even more draw on personal memories from the city.

Arrival Cities: Hanoi aims to create a space where the boundary between fiction and documentary is dissolved.  While it has been essential to remain in what the performers perceive as the authentic experience in the storytelling, the audience cannot really know whether the stories told by the performers are authentic experiences or scripted dialogues. In  the piece, the documentary material forms part of a multi-layered narrative, without laying out the footage as a documentation. The storytelling places the performers on stage as individuals rather than as actors, an approach which is essential to the political aims with the production. This presence in the moment of performance accompanies the images of the street vendors and other people in the documentary.

Empathy and the sharing of individual life stories became the central nodes in the making of Arrival Cities: Hanoi. It is a piece of music theatre without a script, but with a musical and dramaturgical structure. The role of the documentary is manifold. It is a means for a political engagement but also creates memories and images that can be shared and transformed in the performance. Intercultural music and theatre operate in a liminal space between traditions. Aesthetic choices are therefore difficult to negotiate. Without trust and empathy, these negotiations cannot reach beyond the surface. Intercultural collaboration always demands from each individual to give up a piece of the self. In ArrivalCities: Hanoi, composer, director, and performers were all engaged in such learning processes.