Hajnal Németh

Work Song

A musical about unemployment from a released aspect including a demonstration in slow motion, a recycled punk hit and a psychodrama from the future. An experimental piece based on reality.

"Work Song" has been originally produced and presented in 2014 at Teatro Valle Occupato* in Rome.

The main issue of the piece is the unemployment in Italy, the content of the primary textbook and the lyrics of the songs are based on interviews and research in the region of Rome. The musical divided in three parts can be considered experimental in the sense that it is a self-reflective performance querying theatre as an expressive form and also the genre of musical itself. In terms of form, it is an amalgam of genres, a process-based piece comprised of the formal elements of music, theatre, and formal elements of a demonstration or a psychodrama.

The single essential story of the piece unfolds in the scope of a psychodrama from the future in 2032, by evoking the childhood trauma of the protagonist, which happened in 2013. The recollected tragedy is thus a current story, and is based in actual events: the circumstances of the suicide of a man in his final desperation at having become unemployed. The story is delivered from the point of view of the deceased family man’s niece, from a distance of 19 years.

The lyrics of the musical’s fundamental composition are written in two versions with opposite meanings entitled Work Song and Absolution.

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"I was born to make, I was born to remake

I was born to execute and born to operate..."

"You were born to see, you were born to awake

You were born to recognise and born to liberate..."

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20 June 2014

Teatro Valle Occupato, Rome

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Written and directed by: Hajnal Németh

Composed by: Isidro Aublin, Mario Donatone and the Boxerin Club

Performed by: Alessandra Roca, Paolo Giovannucci, Isidro Aublin, Boxerin Club and the World Spirit Orchestra led by Mario Donatone and Giovanna Bosco

Demonstration led by: Annamaria Fasoli

Italian lyrics by: Alice Saulini

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Assistant in organization: Alice Mirti

Technical assistant: Alberto Migliore

Partner in realization: CGIL – Italian General Confederation of Labour, NIDIL – New Identity of Labour, FIOM - Federation of Metal Workers Employees

In cooperation with: Teatro Valle Occupato, Rome; Istituto Balassi, Rome; Allianz Kulturstiftung, Berlin; Free Market Foundation, Budapest; Comune di Olevano Romano, Galerie Patrick Ebensperger

The Psychodrama is based on the film "Kiki In The Group" by Zsuzsa Mérei, András Vikár and János Xantus.

Special thanks to: Juan Acebo, Roberto D' Andrea, Viktor Bátki, Berardo Carboni, Simone Ceccarelli, Fabio Ciolli, Marco Corrias, Elisa Crescenzi, Halfblind Henry, György Jaksity, Léna Kútvölgyi, Attila Ledényi, Luca Mazzenga, Zsuzsa Mérei, Angel Nieto, Gábor Pados, Erich Treiber

*Teatro Valle Occupato - occupied between June 2011 and July 2014

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Photos: Emanuele Pontecorvo