Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT –  Łukasz Twarkowski’s sprawling multimedia vision of THE EMPLOYEES artfully interrogates what it means to be human

• By drediman
• April 28, 2025
• No Comments

This past weekend for three performances only, Polish theater director Łukasz Twarkowski’s slow-burning stage adaptation of The Employees came and went at NYU Skirball. Blink and you’re likely to have missed it — especially during this busy April of theater openings — but for those of us that were there, the “show” amounted to one of the more unique theatrical experiences of the spring. The work of a true auteur, Twarkowski’s production is based on Danish author Olga Ravn’s book of the same name (the novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize), which chronicles the intensifying relationships amongst a small band of human and humanoid androids inhabiting a claustrophobic spacecraft long after the Earth has perished.

First and foremost, The Employees distinguishes itself as a serious work of science fiction for the theater; a rare occurrence, for sure. At the center of the production is the aforementioned spacecraft, which was recreated on the large Skirball stage in the form of an art installation, within which the performance largely takes place. Interestingly, Twarkowski’s multimedia staging consciously breaks the rules of theatergoing etiquette — the taking of photos and videos is allowed during the performance, and audiences are encouraged to roam the stage and take in the show from various vantage points. For the most part, the work is performed without substantial breaks (even the occasional three-minute pauses were punctuated with rave-like dancing around the spaceship, giving the piece much-needed kinetic energy and seamlessly continuing the aura of performance), creating an immersive environment that drew me in with its atmospheric moodiness.

Throughout, a small camera crew followed the deadpan actors within the tight corridors of the cube-like installation-cum-spaceship, capturing and projecting to the audience scenes — strikingly lit in a cinematic manner that evoked iconic science fiction films like Alien and Blade Runner — that simmered with tension and eroticism. Even if much of the pregnant pause-soaked dialogue (the piece is performed in Polish with projected English titles) and the broader circumstances registered as merely suggestive — I suspect by design — The Employees‘ overall sprawl manages to artfully interrogate what it means to be human in the modern world (as such, Twarkowski’s production makes for a fascinating companion piece to Anne Imhof’s mammoth Doom, which played the Park Avenue Armory earlier this year).

RECOMMENDED

THE EMPLOYEES
Off-Broadway, Play
NYU Skirball
2 hours, 40 minutes (with two short pauses)
Closed