Hauptsache Arbeit!

The Main Thing Is Work!

(Hauptsache Arbeit!)

Deutsch
Cast

4F / 6M / 3 additional actors

It's the company party of a big corporation. For some, this is the highlight of the year, for others, simply a nightmare. This time around, management comes up with something special: a chartered pleasure boat. And here, on the brightly decorated dancing floor, the boss cheerfully announces cutbacks to boost revenues. The race is on, and defiance and dignity fall by the wayside, as everyone fights to keep their job.

And so, whilst upstairs they take turns to intimately plead, under the guidance of a motivational trainer, why they shouldn't be the ones to get the shaft, some very different games are being played in the belly of the ship, which go as far as using electric shocks. Occasionally, there are some subversive niches, providing a brief respite from the power struggles and intrigues which weigh heavily on productivity and everyday life. But one topic permeates all levels of management and income, down to the smallest unit: whether life is determined by work, and whether work, in its current form, is just a means to the end of preventing widespread revolt.

World premiere
20.03.2010 Staatstheater Stuttgart, Director: Hasko Weber

Translations
Arabic (Translator: Ecithal Shedid)
Polish Grunt to praca (Translator: Iwona Uberman)
Romanian (Translator: Victor Scoradet)
Romanian premiere 05.10.2017 Teatrul Andrei Muresanu, SF antu Gheorghe (Director: Theo Herghelegiu)
Swedish Jobbet, framför allt! (Translator: Maria Tellander)
Swedish premiere 19.03.2022 Teater Tillsammans, Stockholm (Director: Julia Beil Amarilla)

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