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Łukasz Twarkowski: The Employees

Thu 16 Jan – Sun 19 Jan 2025

Image, sound and dialogue take you far from the theatre in this unsettling play that explores the relationship between humans and robots.

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

Need to know

Age guidance
For ages 16+
Event information

Performed in Polish with English subtitles.

Contains nudity, strobe lights, smoke and very loud music. The performance is not recommended for people with epilepsy.

Please note seating for this performance is unreserved. Audience members are able to move around the space between acts so as to experience the performance from different points of view. The seating on the stage is block benches but there are regular seats available for the duration in the front stalls.

Times & tickets

Dates, times and prices

Dates & times

16 Jan – 19 Jan 2025

Run time

2 hours and 20 minutes (approx)

All timings are approximate and subject to change

Standard entry

from £45.00*

* Excludes £3.50 booking fee.

Book as early as you can to ensure the best choice of tickets. Ticket prices may be adjusted without notice to reflect demand.

Concessions

25%

Limited availability

About concessions

For your visit

This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.