About the work
“Drill Baby Drill” is a play by the Swiss writer Sarah Calörtscher, written as a commission for the Staatstheater Nürnberg. It premiered on 19 February 2026 on the XRT stage on the third floor of the Nuremberg Schauspielhaus, directed by Ariane Kareev. Built like a collage, the text combines science fiction with a journey through the Earth’s layers and is published by Hartmann & Stauffacher.
Plot
The oil has run out when, in a post-fossil world, a vast hole suddenly opens in the ground – perhaps an unknown gas lies down there, the next great source of energy. A geologist who is also a part-time bodybuilder is sent to be the first human to explore the shaft. With a recording device as her only, constantly commenting companion, she works her way down layer by layer through the winding interior of the Earth. At the Earth’s centre she meets an oracle that is worn out by endless prophesying and has more or less stopped doing its job.
Cultural significance
With dry humour, the play asks about the limits of growth, the power of systems and possible ways out of the paralysis humanity has manoeuvred itself into. At the first PLAY festival for new theatre texts from Switzerland, which presented eight of 128 submissions as staged readings in Zurich in 2026, “Drill Baby Drill” won the audience award (PRIX du Public).