In a factory in a Chinese city, four workers are put to the test in an interview which, for the most part, takes place only in the imagination of the spectator, protagonist of an especially innovative stage experience.
Created by the Italian playwright Stefano Massini, artistic director of the Piccolo Teatro de Milán, and characterised by producing political-natured texts such as those in the Lehman Trilogy, seen on stages worldwide and staged by Roberto Romei himself at the Grec Festival in 2016. This author and director tandem together again with a production that presents a critical look at a nearby labour market, veering towards exploitation, with low wages, few breaks and precarious contracts. Massini relates the story of conditions which are still all too common in Chinese factories but which on the other hand convert China into a symbol showing us a globalised world where companies and their capital have captured all the power and have left the workers and the population in a vulnerable state. This vulnerability is exemplified perfectly by the four workers in the interview who when receiving attacks and aggressive questions directed at them by the inspector remain silent. The four chairs you see up on stage, totally bare and without one single prop, are empty, therefore the it’s the spectators themselves, sitting around the stage who must then imagine the answers and the defence of these silent workers. So, it is the public who must therefore create the responses, positive or negative, imagining the gestures and looks of the workers and make visible in their minds the papers, sheets or the coloured pencils that the main actress speaks of. The words she utters and her performance are the sole element that the audience has, therefore converting them into the playwright’s accomplices, having to recreate a large part of the play in their own mind.
A coproduction by Grec 2018 Festival de Barcelona, Tantarantana Teatre and Arsènic Creació S.L.
Author: Stefano Massini Translation: Carles Fernandez Giua Director: Roberto Romei Assistant director: Gabi Jiménez Performer: Sandra Monclús Space, wardrobe and lighting design: Roger Orra Sound space: Jordi Collet Photography: Aitor Rodero
