A patient dies in geriatric care. She leaves her money to her Eastern European caretaker. The family of the deceased files a lawsuit: they claim that the migrant woman has committed fraud and sought revenge against her working conditions. Simultaneously, the case is investigated by a university research team and by an insurance company. All the parties involved create a maelstrom of family tragedy and management tools, taboos and moral entitlement.
People in post-industrial societies are aging, and they do not only lose their pension funds. There is also the scandal-mongering news of the dementia tsunami on the horizon. Yet at the same time, the status of care work has not been elevated from its low level. It is being delegated to women and “emerging countries”, citing natural motherliness as reasons.
«Pflege und Verpflegung – Caregiving Caretakers» carries today’s state of emergency in the care profession to its extreme in order to emphatically remove the shackles of constant efficiency-monitoring from it. An additional actor, involved in the story, can be found in the tracks of the English/French subtitles. Who is to be the confident in this tricky situation if not language itself, bending over and bowing to aging, as it unwinds linguistically?
German language. With English subtitles called «Pflege und Verpflegung – Caregiving Caretakers», with French subtitles called «Pflege und Verpflegung – À bout de soins»
Duration: 75 minutes
Performance: Vivien Bullert, Meret Hottinger, Christoph Rath, Elisabeth Rolli | Text, Stage Directions: Tim Zulauf | Lighting, Set: Stefan Marti, Michael Omlin, Tim Zulauf | Sound: Susanne Affolter | Costumes: Collective | Dramaturgy: Andreas Storm | Oeil Extérieur, Photographs: Andrea Thal | Research: Iris Bischel, Sarah Schilliger | Translation Subtitles English: Subtext, Linda Cassens Stoian / Dòra Kapusta | Translation Subtitles French: Subtext, Cosima Weiter / Dòra Kapusta | Production Management: KMUProduktionen
Performances
Festival Belluard Bollwerk International: 01 and 02 Juli 2014
Theaterhaus Gessnerallee, Zürich: 16 April 2015, 20 Uhr (Premiere), 17, 18, 19, 20, 27, 28, 29 April 2015, 8 pm each time, apart from SUN 19 April: 6 pm Tickets
Kaserne Basel, 8 and 9 April 2016
Tojo Theater Bern, WED 05.10., THU 06.10. (afterwards talk*), FRY 07.10., SAT 08.10., 8.30 till 9.40 pm
* talk on THU 06, with Prof. Dr. Petra Metzenthin (Dozentin Master of Science in Pflege, Berner Fachhochschule), Dr. des. Sarah Schilliger (Soziologin Uni Basel, Dissertation «Pflege ohne Grenzen?») und Tim Zulauf (Autor, Regisseur)
A production by KMUProduktionen, in coproduction with Theaterhaus Gessneralle Zurich and Belluard Bollwerk International, realised thanks to a contribution from the cultural funding of the Canton Fribourg
| With kind support from City of Zurich Kultur, the Culture Department of the Canton Zurich, the Migros cultural fund (Kulturprozent), the Swiss Pro Helvetia Arts Council, Georges und Jenny Bloch-Foundation, Oertli-Foundation, Swiss Society for Performing Artists (SIG)
| Heartfelt thanks to the health department of the Berne University of Applied Sciences – nursing department
Photographs: Andrea Thal