About the work
Alltägliche Spektakel (Everyday Spectacles) is a play by Paula Kläy, subtitled "A play about work in the 21st century". It grew out of two months of artistic research across Saarland in cooperation with the Arbeitskammer des Saarlandes (Saarland Chamber of Labour): the team toured workplaces, visited archives, set up street stands and talked with nearly 100 people from the region, individually and in groups, about their work. The play premiered on 5 September 2026 at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in its Alte Feuerwache venue, directed by Rosa Rieck, with a citizens' ensemble performing alongside the actors.
Plot
A group of mysterious beings sets out to study humankind: what people need, how they function and where they contradict themselves. Their material is an audio archive that preserves past experiences of work. From these voices a picture gradually emerges of what ties people to their work and how closely work is interwoven with a region's sense of itself.
Cultural significance
The play combines documentary material from Saarland with a motif that often shapes Kläy's writing for the stage: idiosyncratic figures who look at the present from the outside, like researchers. The premiere production is accompanied by the discussion series "Zukünfte der Arbeit" (Futures of Work), in which experts from politics, journalism, literature, sociology and futures research talk with the audience after the performances.