Everything OK conveys a complex portrayal of contemporary society and its everyday hierarchy: those at the top, those at the bottom, and those who aren't even in the picture. Set on a rainy Friday evening in a bourgeois city-center building, the play intertwines three coexisting narratives: a hallway chit-chat between a retired janitor and a cleaning lady, a group of co-workers on a team building in an escape room, and a refugee story of Timekeeper.
The escape room appears as a key setting connecting all characters and their stories. It is a metaphor for life in the 21st century. Pressure to perform, to be productive and successful, constant (micro) decision making, a stressful environment and — an acute lack of time. A mixture of modern dialog, characters' observations and internal monologues highlights alienation in hierarchical business structures and builds tension. In addition to explosions of competitiveness and aggression, there is a series of “implosions”. Monologues give a sneak peek behind the social masks and reveal the symptoms of modern life in a capitalist society: depression, anxiety, substance abuse, dysfunctional relationships. A game-master of the escape room titled Timekeeper's Eternity, who is supposed to make sure everything runs smoothly, is a fine-art student Mihaela. She is facing the biggest dilemma of her life: to go or not to go — abroad? — introducing the theme of the precarious position of artists and migrants.
It has been thirty years since Lili was forced to flee her country and start a new life as the second-class “Yugo” citizen. Dialogs with lonely widower Franci unfold her humor and resilience, but also his nationalism and machismo. The journey of Timekeeper and his family, trying to escape from war, is written as a fairy tale. Reminiscent of tragedies of people dying at European borders, it raises questions of racism, new colonialism, and the mechanisms of neoliberal capitalist and (democratic) politics.
Everything OK explores the topics of (un)employment, (i)migration, discrimination, patriarchy, mental health, ageism, and loneliness, and poses a seemingly simple but provocative question: How OK are we — really?
Cast: estimated 5 actors (4 female, 1 male).
*The play anticipates and encourages a variety of casting solutions.
Translations: English. Awards: nominated for the Slavko Grum Award for best play, 2020.
Productions: 16 Feb 2021, Main Stage, SNG Drama Ljubljana · 15 Sep 2020, SNG Nova Gorica (staged reading). Published in: SNG Drama Ljubljana programme 2021/22, no. 7 · Sodobnost, Jul–Aug 2020.