Moles

As part of DRAMA! 2026
October 15, 6:30 p.m. and October 16, 8:30 p.m.
HfMT, Barmbek Campus at Wiesendamm 26

MAULWÜRFE
based on Franca Zajac

WITH Nick Hohlbach, Mathieu Pestel, Leela Scherbaum, Kirill Zubarev

STAGING Dante Nicolai Rafalski
DRAMATURGY Yael Ostermeier
SET DESIGN Frida Navrátil
COSTUMES Runa Marx

JAN
I’d rather listen to silence than German. No language is as monotonous or as condescending as German.

JACEK
That sounds beautiful, Jan. Even if the river sounds like a Pole, it won’t take you back home again.

In her play, Franca Zajac explores the history of the so-called “Ruhr Poles”—migrant workers—across several generations. Through three narrative strands that become increasingly intertwined, we learn the story of Jan Andrzej, who leaves his homeland and his family to mine coal in the Ruhr region. You meet his colleague Jacek and learn about the hard work and life in the miners’ settlements where the guest workers lived. The narrative is framed by the story of Karo, a stage technician who always stops by her father’s place after work; she knows about his history in mining but has never really spoken to him about it.

*Moles* explores themes of uprooting and homelessness, the search for belonging, the grief over the loss of a homeland and family, and how to cope with intergenerational trauma.

WITH YAEL (DRAMATURGY) AND DANTE (DIRECTOR)

YAEL: How do you approach a text and its themes?

DANTE: For me, it’s important to find the essence of a piece, to uncover the core of things. From there, we can ask ourselves what we want to tell and what form is right for it.

DANTE: What stood out to you most when you first read the text? What stuck with you?

YAEL: The first thing that struck me was the language. It’s very poetic, and I found that fascinating. What stuck with me most of all is that it’s a story I hadn’t really engaged with deeply before.

DANTE: What really stuck with me was that I was completely fooled by the text the first time I read it. At first, I thought it was a historical drama—which it really isn’t.

YAEL: How can the text’s many themes be woven together, especially when it comes to loss and grief?

DANTE: We first wanted to establish a clear framework with our concept that would set a direction: What is the core of our narrative, and where do we want to go? From there, we considered which decisions would help us bring that core to life on stage. In addition to the text’s many other themes, we agreed above all to tell a story of uprooting. To that end, we developed a concept in which the characters are a crew of stage technicians.

DANTE: Is it important to you to incorporate personal experiences into a production?

YAEL: I believe that you always bring something personal to a piece when you engage with it over an extended period of time. After all, engaging with a text is also a personal process—if only because of the perspective from which you approach it.

YAEL: What does work mean to you?

DANTE: In our production, work is like a sound that accompanies and frames the entire evening. Work plays a major role in the text. That’s why it was important to me to make it visible on stage and physically tangible. If work is merely discussed, it remains abstract. In our production, the performers actually carry out physically demanding work processes. Making this work so present was a central concern of mine for the production.

DANTE: What connection do you see between the work of stage technicians and work in mining?

YAEL: In this production, I can see this connection immediately. We observe the work the entire time and thus experience very concretely what it means. Both stage technology and mining involve physically demanding work. For me, that’s the central connection.

YAEL: What do you associate with the Ruhr region?

DANTE: I’m from the Ruhr region myself and have a close, positive connection to the area. I associate it with a direct, warm way of addressing things and a collegial atmosphere among people. The Ruhr region is shaped by mining and labor migration. For me, the term “Kumpel” also stands for a certain sense of community: people come together, become part of a group, and stand up for one another. This form of community is also something I value in theater: people who didn’t know each other before come together and work on something as a team, becoming an ensemble.

DANTE: What role does the Ruhr region play in the text and in the production?

YAEL: The sense of camaraderie is an important aspect. On stage, we see how people build something up and take it down together, encountering one another in the process and negotiating various issues with one another. At the same time, the Ruhr region is also visually present—through the set design and the use of coal.

BOTH: Do you have a favorite term from the Ruhr region?

DANTE: I’d say “Hömma.” It actually slips out sometimes. And of course, “malochen.”

YAEL: I also like “malochen” and “Schicht im Schacht,” precisely because both fit so well with the production.

DANTE: Another one that comes to mind is “Gedöns”—in the sense of frills or nonsense. That’s definitely one of my favorite words, too.

The interview as an audio file

We would like to thank Eva-Maria Voigtländer for making this project possible, for her love for the ensemble, and for all her advice and kind words; Cilli Drexel for all the times we went out for coffee, for her keen eye for craftsmanship, and for her sharp eye for everything; John von Düffel, Philipp Hauß, Sybille Meier, and Tim Schüler for their trust and support; Sabina Dhein and Paul Marwitz-Seyffert for organizing and making the DRAMA! 2026 Festivals—the great machine that keeps running in the background for all of us—the HfMT technical crew, Hannes Höhler, Philipp Dehnerdt, Kevin Neugebohren, Frithjof Krieger, and Tino Wichmann, who showed us how to be authentic TECHNICIANS and who hung sets, lit the stage, shared their stories, and inspired us; Franca Zajac for her words; Yael Ostermeier for her insightful perspective; Frida Navrátil for her set design, Runa Marx for her costume design, and EVERYONE else who glued, watched, painted, emailed, dressed, cared for, wrote, observed, advised, tinkered, and poured their absolute L O V E into it.

And above all, always, and most especially, to the cast <3

This project is only possible thanks to the grants and support of the Dr. Margitta and Dietmar Lambert Endowment Fund under the umbrella of the Hamburg Cultural Foundation, as well as the Mara and Holger Cassens Foundation and the productive collaboration with the University of Music, Theater, and Media in Hanover, as well as the Berlin University of the Arts.