'It has to seem supple, but it has to be fought for hard' - said Rita Süssmuth about women in politics. Power and leadership positions are still considered unfeminine, and gender equality in the parliaments and boards of directors of this world still seems like a pipe dream. But: In some countries, young women are coming to power and their leadership style is characterized by empathy and polyphony. Is a new leadership culture glimmering on the horizon? A band of actresses and musicians sings about the downfall of neoliberal feminism, in which women have to perform their way through glass ceilings. Boss/y imagines a new, fair world order in which feminist foreign policy is as natural as closing the gender pay gap. With speeches and music by Waltraud Schoppe, Kate Bush, Julia Gillard, Janelle Monae, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kim Boekbinder, Angela Merkel, Pussy Riot, Jacinda Ardern and Annalena Baerbock, among others.
Boss/y - ein feministischer Leaderabend
A Flinn Works production in Coproduction with Theater Freiburg
Devised by: Nora Buzalka, Fabienne Hadorn, Kathrina Hülsmann, Katharina Pfänder, Lisa Stepf (Performance and Music) / Sophia Stepf, Lisa Stepf (Artistic Direction) / Léa Dietrich (Stage Design) / Tatjana Kautsch (Costume Design) / Katrin Mickiewicz (Composition) / Tamina Theiß (Dramaturgy) / Stefanie Mrachacz (Devising) / Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz (Management) / Camilla Dania, Dario Fini, Linda Graf, Levi Böhm (Assistants)
Funded by: Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR
Theater Freiburg: October 21, 2022 (Opening), October 23 & 25 / 2022, December 15.& 16.2022 / February 11 & 12. 2023 / March: 11 & 12, 2023 / Bühne Aarau: March 14 & 15, 2024
Flinn Works shows how much content, wit, topicality and variety can all be packed into a single play at once. With 'relentless kindness', the five brilliant performers create a world of new, feminist leadership culture.
Badische Zeitung, 24.10.2022
"Boss/y - a feminist leadership evening" begins with two sisters who observe a change in politics. In New Zealand, Finland, Iceland and the USA, young women are coming to power in a wide variety of places who are politicizing differently: More empathetic, more focused on the common good. The two sisters are fascinated. And what do women do when they have found a fascinating topic? They don't immediately open their mouths and start shouting. They educate themselves. And then they start shouting.(...) "Do they also exist as a girl group? Or as female chancellors?" writes a journalist about the ensemble. Not yet. But in this play, which shows flashes of a different leadership culture, the audience can drink a beer with the stars on stage at the end and browse through feminist literature.
AAKU cultural magazine Aargau, March 2024
Women in leadership positions, and especially female politicians, can tell you a thing or two about how incompatible the expectations placed on them are: They should be assertive but not aggressive, warm-hearted but not emotional. Women are still judged differently to men. Sophia and Lisa Stepf, together with the theater collective Flinn Works, bring the topic to the stage and rethink it. An evening not to be missed.
WE LOVE AARAU, March 2024