About the work
„Die Letzten werden die Allerletzten sein“ (roughly: The Last Shall Be the Very Last) is a new play by Luis August Krawen and Martha Mechow. It is the first of two works Krawen is creating as artist in residence in the Berliner Ensemble's international early-career directing programme WORX for the 2026/27 season. The world premiere, directed by Krawen himself, is scheduled for 30 October 2026 in the Berliner Ensemble's Werkraum.
Plot
At its centre is an artist whom no one notices any more and who scrapes by between state benefits and retail jobs. Early in the morning she stocks shelves, later she sits at the checkout, and time passes to the rhythm of goods on the conveyor belt. After a full working day she has no energy left to paint. Krawen draws on experiences of his own mother.
Cultural significance
The play asks how the educated middle class slides into precarity and how the verdict of having failed inscribes itself into lives and bodies. As a new premiere, it has no critical reception yet.