About the work
"Schleuderdrama" is a play by the author Laura Naumann that explores the near future of human coexistence with artificial intelligence. Written for three performers, the play asks what it means to let artificial intelligence into our lives: is it a tool, a mirror or a rival? And where does the boundary lie between human and machine, between control and loss of control? Work on the text was funded by the German Literature Fund (Deutscher Literaturfonds); it premiered at Theater Bielefeld.
Plot
Rather than a self-contained narrative, the evening circles the points of friction that arise when artificial intelligence penetrates everyday life, relationships and people's sense of self. Foregrounded are the play's guiding questions: to what extent does technology serve us – and to what extent does it begin to shape us? Where does the supposed helper become a counterpart that mirrors or challenges us? "Schleuderdrama" probes these ambivalences scenically and makes tangible the unease triggered by rapid technological change.
Cultural significance
With the rise of generative AI, the question of the relationship between human and machine has become one of the most pressing issues of the present. "Schleuderdrama" takes up this debate for the stage and joins a growing number of contemporary plays that treat digitalisation and artificial intelligence not as mere science-fiction motifs but as an immediate social reality. Funding by the German Literature Fund underlines the standing of the text within new German-language drama.