Nathan Ellis (GB)

“work.txt” is a performance about work culture in the new-work age: flexible working hours, blurring boundaries between work and private life, increasing automation. Consequently, the performers in this piece are also absent. So it is up to the audience to get active! In teams and on their own, playful instructions are used to complete work assignments. Cleverly and shrewdly, the project negotiates the phenomenon of Gig Economy as well as financial instability and deals with bullshit jobs.

The profound and timely production about the question of the meaning of work for our society was nominated for the VAULT Festival 2020 Innovation Award as well as for an OffWestEnd Theatre Award by IDEA Production 2022 and won the Red Theatre International Award for Innovation 2021.

“work.txt is for people who love karaoke, think “The Office” is great, and have a knack for extremely awkward moments. It’s for those who hate their boss, are bosses themselves, and for those who wonder what happens to their lives at work.” (The Scotsman, 2022)

Nathan Ellis is a writer for theatre and film. He wrote “work.txt” in 2019 before the first lockdown in London. Yet it’s a play that already has the experiences of working from home and isolation in it.