PREMIERE: Dirty Laundry. The TrashOpera,
a performance by Nicoleta Esinencu, Artiom Zavadovsky, Doriana Talmazan, Kira Semionov, Nora Dorogan, Sandu Măcrinici
21 / 22 / 23 / 25 March, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin
in the frame of Every Day: Feminist Struggles in Post-Socialist Europe.
A cruise ship as a microcosm of the contemporary capitalist world: on the one hand, wealth is casually flaunted with unrestrained consumerism, and on the other, an almost invisible group of people clean, cook, wash and entertain under extreme conditions. But something is afoot – in the laundry room on one of the lower decks, the exploited workers are having a party that will shatter the cruiser, shaking up conventional rules.
Based in the present, Moldovan theatre maker Nicoleta Esinencu and teatru-spălătorie take a look at the past in ‘Dirty Laundry. The TrashOpera’, their fourth production with HAU: time and again throughout history, social movements have emerged in which people have discussed various ways we can achieve a free and just world. Bold and radical ideas have been widespread. However, the capitalist order has worked hard over the last century to diminish and extinguish this political imagination. Today, freedom effectively means that you have no one to lean on, that you’re on your own in the middle of the sea, in the middle of war, in the middle of capitalist catastrophe. So is an egalitarian, nature-loving, peaceful world just a pipe dream? Far removed from a patriarchal history of civilisation, Nicoleta Esinencu & teatru-spălătorie assert with powerful words and sound collage that it is precisely this world that is our heritage, looking ahead for social potential.
Cast:
Performance: Artiom Zavadovsky, Doriana Talmazan, Kira Semionov
Technical development: Neonil Roșca, Sergiu Iachimov
Artistic consulting: Aenne Quiñones (HAU)
Production manager: Jana Penz (HAU)
Technical production management: David Egger
Sound: Janis Klinkhammer
Light: Hanna Kritten Tangsoo
Press and Marketing: Lilly Schofield /
Translation from Moldavian Romanian into German: Ciprian Marinescu, Frank Weigand / Translation from Moldavian Romanian into English: Artiom Zavadovsky / Editor English version: Ellen Gallagher
Trailer: Robert Kondorosi
Production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer and teatru-spălătorie.
Co-production: FFT Düsseldorf. Funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
