7 March 2020 – SchauspieL Stuttgart, Kammertheater – Premiere
The Clickworkers

By Dino Pešut and Selma Spahić
German Translation by Mascha Dabić
Project 4 by the EuropEAN Ensemble

Directed by: Selma Spahić
Scenic and Costume Design: Selena Orb
Music: Draško Adžić
Dramaturgy: Carolin Losch
With: Tenzin Kolsch, Claudia Korneev, Adrian Pezdirc, Jaśmina Polak, Anđela Ramljak, Jan Sobolewski

It’s a brave new world of work, and six young people have been recruited for a trailblazing project in the field of ecology. On offer is a pleasant workplace environment, extortionate working hours, and a salary that falls just short of minimum wage. But who wouldn't want to be present for the forging of the future of work and, with it, a utopian society?

In their new play, Croatian author Dino Pešut and Bosnian director Selma Spahić develop their vision of a modernity in which the individual is sacrificed at the altar of new markets. Following productions in Warsaw and Zagreb, the European Ensemble returns to Stuttgart.

What is it that drives us in Europe? What are the artistic answers that we can give to the challenges and contradictions of our present moment? In the 2018/19 season, the European Ensemble, under the artistic direction of Oliver Frljić, was founded by Schauspiel Stuttgart in cooperation with Nowy Teatr Warsaw and the Zagreb Youth Theatre, as well as in associated partnership with the National Theatre of Athens. In Frljić’s project Imaginary Europe, we turned to key moments of European history; in Erazm / Erasmus, French-Polish director Anna Smolar examined the relevance of Erasmus of Rotterdam’s humanistic philosophy; Greek theatre maker Anestis Azas employed Ödön von Horváth's The Eternal Philistine to portray a deeply insecure generation in the throes of upheaval. In 2020, three additional directors will take up the challenge of questioning the European project through their original productions. Selma Spahić launches this second round with The Clickworkers.

Selma Spahić was born in Bosnia in 1986 and studied directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. She directs at theatres in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and teaches directing at the Academy in Sarajevo. Her work has been invited to numerous international festivals in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as to the Wiesbaden Biennale. Selma Spahić is Curator of the International Theatre Festival MESS in Sarajevo, which focuses on international experimental performance and promotes emerging artists.

Dino Pešut was born in 1990 in Sisak, Croatia and studied screenplay, dramaturgy, and dramatic writing in Zagreb. He works as a theatre practitioner in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and Germany. His first play, Pritisci moje generacije (The pressure of my generation) earned him an invitation to the Forum of Young European Writers at the Wiesbaden Theatre Biennale in 2012. His drama (Pret)posljednja panda ili statika ((Pen)ultimate Panda or Static) was presented at the Stückemarkt of the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2016, won the German Youth Theatre Prize in 2018, and has been part of the theatrical programme of the Vienna Burgtheater since September 2019. His other works Veliki hotel Bezdan (Grand Hotel Abyss) and Stela, poplava (Stella, the Flood) were awarded the Marin Držić Prize, which is given by the Croatian Ministry of Culture. Schauspiel Stuttgart will present the world premiere of his play The Clickworkers, the fourth project by the European Ensemble, in the 2019/20 season.

A coproduction of Schauspiel Stuttgart, Nowy Teatr, Warsaw and Zagreb Youth Theatre (Zagrebačko kazalište mladih). Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.