The show sees the audience sat in a converted trailer with windows, with two real truck drivers in the seats of the cabin telling their real life stories over speaker as the vehicle moves.
“The truck is converted into a showroom, has a window on the side, a sound system and spotlights on the outside. The audience sits inside the truck, where cargo was once stored. Thus, the truck acts as an observatory, theatre projection and mobile binoculars, all of which allow the audience to examine their surroundings like a microscope,” the creators of the show say on their website.
Those behind the play add that they want to tell the story of the hardships that some drivers face due to poor working conditions in the European road freight sector:
“Eastern European freight forwarders have captured over 40% of the European transport market due to their affordable price, which leads to low wages and harsh working conditions for their drivers. The Cargo Berlin – Timișoara show is an innovative and unique live experience that puts their routine in a play and the audience at the heart of the subject matter,” reads the play’s synopsis.
The play invites the audience to be part of the life of two truck drivers on the road, and makes stops in Timișoara and its surroundings.
“This Cargo X show has a long history, it started in 2005 through a collaboration between Rimini Protokoll and the Goethe Institut in Bulgaria, and it has expanded all over the world. The proposal to do this show together came from the Project Center because the two theatre companies are similar and open to documentary theatre. We had the first discussions in November, that’s when we cemented our plans. On March 5, we also received the truck,” Ana Maria Ursu, Manager of the Basque Theatre, told trans.iNFO’s Romanian language service.
The drivers in the show are as authentic as they come, the theatre manager ensures trans.iNFO:
“In this documentary truck ride, we wanted to highlight truck drivers – a group of people invisible to many. When I approached them [the two drivers who lead the play], I didn’t think they understood exactly what they were getting into. We had the press preview yesterday and they did really well. They enjoy it and are seeing the experience as a novel one.”
After the first preview show, audiences said that spectacle had allowed them to really understand what the life of a truck driver can look like, says Ursu.
The show invites the audience to be at the heart of the drivers’ stories and understand the challenges that HGV drivers encounter on their routes:
“Drivers are often invisible people to us, we don’t contemplate that there are people driving the streets at night who make sure we have everything we need.”
The first performance of the Cargo Berlin-Timișoara show is on March 31. It will run until May 27th. The show will go on road, stopping at certain key points such as RDCs, warehouses and other logistics sites frequented by lorries.
Tickets can be purchased by accessing this link, while more info is available on the official website.
