About the work
Wokey Wokey is a satirical comedy by Nora Abdel-Maksoud, written as a commission for the Münchner Kammerspiele, where she also directed it herself. The premiere took place on 27 March 2026 in the Kammerspiele's Schauspielhaus. Following „Jeeps“ (2021) and „Doping“ (2024), it is her third play for the theatre and completes this satirical trilogy.
Plot
The play takes a look behind the scenes of a film shoot: director Gordon wants to turn George Orwell's „1984“ into a musical film with a happy ending for Winston and Julia, deliberately playing to the mood against supposed wokeness. In a hall in Brandenburg, a cancelled actor, an ageing film diva and two activists clash ever more fiercely. As the conflicts escalate and hidden radicalisation comes to light, the film project falls apart scene by scene.
Cultural significance
With rapid scene changes, exaggerated characters and cinematic devices such as split screens and freeze frames, the farce dissects today's culture wars and asks how far the political centre is willing to stand up against discrimination and right-wing agitation once its own privileges are at stake. Critics praised the pace, the density of punchlines and the ensemble, calling Abdel-Maksoud a master of discourse theatre, while finding some passages confusing.