''Das Werk'' (''The Works'', sometimes translated as ''The Plant'') is a play by the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winning

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

playwright and novelist

Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices ...

About

It premiered at the

Akademietheater The Akademietheater in Vienna, Austria, is the smaller of two performance halls of the Burgtheater The Burgtheater (; literally: "Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater", originally known as '' K.K. Theater ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 11 April 2003, under the direction of

Nicolas Stemann Nicolas Stemann (born 1968 in Hamburg, West Germany) is a German theatre director. He is best known for directing the 2002 stage production of ''Hamlet'' at Schauspiel Hannover, a theatre in Hanover. Career Stemann studied German literature and ...

. Based on historical events, the play depicts the suffering of workers building a large power plant in the town of

Kaprun Kaprun () is a municipality in the Zell am See District in the province of Salzburg (state), Salzburg in Austria. Together with the neighboring city of Zell am See the town presents itself as the tourist destination and skiing area "Zell am See-K ...

. The

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

government used slave labor for the project, then after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, construction was completed using mostly foreign workers.

About

References

Further reading