Insight in front of the TV camera: Desire is not color-blind

Beware of misleading labels! The dating show is called "Unfiltered!" But anyone who thinks they're allowed to say what's on their mind in front of the camera hasn't reckoned with the surveillance computer. As soon as it detects deviations from the show script, emotional outbursts, or even critical remarks from the contestants, it interrupts the show.

"Unfiltered!" is also the title of a play by Ghanaian-German author and director Mable Preach, which is the subject of this show. It premiered on Friday at the Schiffbau-Matchbox as part of the "Junges Schauspielhaus" program.

The production's initial focus is on satirizing the TV format, led by a straw-blonde presenter with a permanent grin (Lena Schwarz). In various episodes, she calls the competitors onto a multi-level, pink podium. The show turns out to be a competition that not only promises a love match, but also a prize for the winner – depending on how much credit the participants can accumulate on their "love account." It is the theater audience who are supposed to evaluate their performances with applause.

First up is Lizzy (Simisola Oke). Five balloons have fallen from the ceiling into the hands of viewers, from whom Lizzy is allowed to choose a partner. But some seem "emotionally unavailable." Others, however, Lizzy distrusts for a specific reason: She's Black, and she doesn't want to get involved with guys who just want to go on a one-off date with a Black woman, as a kind of colonial adventure.

Indeed, dark skin turns out to be the main theme of "Unfiltered!" A dark complexion that indicates African or Asian ancestry is also shared by the strong and resolute Nenna (Maïmouna Abou Aw) and the somewhat more cautious Ferdy (Neftalem Tewelde Tekeste), who primarily wants to collect the love prize.

And the three make no secret of their experiences. Lizzy, who is "in love with love" because it should create a space of absolute mutual trust, is unsettled by the "DMs" (direct messages) she receives from men: "You look like a woman in a Drake video." This is how she becomes an object, a fetish.

Nenna also feels like the audience is staring at her, judging her, and objectifying her. Since childhood, the two candidates have apparently been repeatedly confronted with casting situations: Lizzy lived in a home before having to apply for a foster family – by smiling nicely. Nenna speaks of similar experiences at school.

Both believe that Black women are still the least respected in our society. However, they don't want their skin color to be ignored, as one candidate, proud of his colorblindness, would have us believe. Rather, they demand "that people don't erase my reality like a typo in a PDF."

At the end, a brilliantly over-committed Bachelor appears as a juror (Mervan Ürkmez), feigning empathy with Lizzy, Nenna, and Ferdy, only to dismiss them as losers. Finally, the three band together to rehearse a rebellion against the show, but the show is simply deleted by the computer. But the audience remembers "Unfiltered!" as an insightful play about minorities: It avoids stereotypes of racism and xenophobia, instead bringing very real experiences to the stage.