Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

Working in the kitchen – job of your dreams, way station, or dead end? A job in a restautrant is often the first stop for newcomers to Berlin. If you don’t speak German, you’re washing dishes in a neighbourhood kitchen; if you’Re proficient in the language, you’re allowed to do service.

The kitchen is the site of drama, a microcosm in a state of emergency. Janus-faced, with a gleaming entrance and a security door as an emergency exit, it’s Berlin’s front yard. Berlin’s kitchen jobs have sent more than a few packing again – if they were in a position to do so.

“If a fixed menu costs 5 euros, you can assume that people in the kitchen are earning 3.50 euros per hour”, a former cook reveals. People washing dishes in a Berlin kitchen barely earn enough to survive – despite “minimum wages”. But after all, it’s only the beginning, there’s better to come! The kitchen as a stepping stone into a new life! Or will it be the only chance? Who will manage to move up in the hierarchy? Open his/her own restaurant?

In the confined space of a restaurant kitchen, the director Anestis Azas  finds the concentrate of current socuial developments. After the production of Telemachos – Schould I stay or Should I go?, co-directed with Prodromos Tsinikoris, he now turns his attention to Berlin’s flagship industry – the workplace of those new to Berlin. Top chefs and neighbourhood innkeepers, self-made women and dishwashers, canteen kitchen operators and food runners – their experiences are ingredients.

In German and English with surtitles * By and with: Anestis Azas & ensemble* Direction: Anestis Azas * Research and text: Anestis Azas, Alina Spachidis & ensemble * Stage & costume: Michaela Muchina * Light design: Catalina Fernández * Dramaturgy: Alina Spachidis * Video: Mehmet Can Koçak * With: Nizar Basal, David Boylan, Michail Fotopoulos, Kaoru Iriyama, Nicole Sartirani * Co-produced by Kultursprünge im Ballhaus Naunynstraße gemeinnützige GmbH and  Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main, supported by Einzelprojektförderung des Landes Berlin.