VORBIȚI TĂCERE?/SPRECHEN SIE SCHWEIGEN? (DO YOU SPEAK SILENCE?)

a performance by Gianina Cărbunariu

SCENOGRAPHY AND VIDEO: Mihai Păcurar
ASSISTANT TO THE DIRESCTOR: Sanda Anastasof
MUSIC: Alex Halka
DOCUMENTATION: Gianina Cărbunariu and Andrei Ioniță
TRANSLATION: Fabiola Eidloth and Daria Hainz
CAST: Emőke Boldizsár, Daniel Bucher, Ofelia Popii, Valentin Späth, Marius Turdeanu

duration: 1h 35min 

Based on an initial process of documentation consisting of interviews held in Germany and Romania followed by discussions and improvisations, this performance proposes a theatrical exploration of the instruments of silence, by means of which labour exploitation is concealed in Europe. Just as a theatre script adheres to certain conventions, so does the European legal framework lay the foundation of a reality in which we are all performers. Is the reality of today fairly scripted? To what extent are the dignity and the freedom of decision-making observed in the process of selling and purchasing labour power? Are we able to change things for the better? If yes, how can we do that? What defines each and every one of us apart from our labour power? What does “integration” mean in this context? These are a few questions we are trying to formulate in the three native languages spoken by the actors involved in the project: Romanian, German and Hungarian. An important particularity of this project is the cast itself, consisting of actors from the Romanian and German Departments of ‟Radu Stanca” National Theatre in Sibiu, as well as the rehearsals, which were held in English, the only common language of all project participants. All this concrete data of the artists involved and of the work process gave us the chance to initiate a game of identities, of perspectives, of unclear, misleading translations, which were sometimes cruel and other times funny due to their absurdity. In the long run, we were challenged to find the script that would allow us to dream together, even though each of us would do so in his/her own mother tongue. 
We hereby thank all of those who were kind enough to speak to us and special thanks to Mr. Elvis Iancu, one of the workers who protested at the Mall of Berlin - Mall of Shame in 2014 for the respect of labour and workers’ dignity.