Lukasz Twarkowski: The Employees

Eminent Polish director, scenographer and theatre artist Łukasz Twarkowski directs STUDIO teatrgaleria (Warsaw)’s UK debut of The Employees, an unsettling glimpse of a starkly different, but uncannily familiar, world. Onboard a spaceship, an experiment is conducted: how will cooperation unfold between humans and their humanoid counterparts? Both groups are under the close observation and control of a mysterious Organisation managing the expedition, and the audience watches their report on their relationships, work, communication and coexistence. With the advancement of AI technology, questions about humans cooperating with non-human entities have never been so urgent. The play explores ideas of human consciousness and desires as reflected in the uncanny counterpart. The script of the play by Joanna Bednarczyk is based on the International Booker Prize-nominated novel The Employees by Danish author Olga Ravn. Although the play is set millions of kilometres away from Earth and in a distant future, it brings up many problems of contemporary reality – the crisis of relationships between humans and with nature in the face of increasingly technologised society. Performed in Polish with English subtitles. The Employees is kindly supported by the Polish Cultural Institute, London