Erdbeerwaisen/ Căpşunile şi Orfanii/ Strawberry Orphans

A journey to an abandoned generation in Romania

The name STRAWBERRY ORPHANS has been given to a generation of children in Romania; everyone there knows its meaning. They are EU orphans – 400,000 children whose parents have left the country to work in the West. The children are mostly looked after by their grandparents or neighbours or are left alone. The generation of parents, approximately a fifth of the working Romanian population, finance not only their own families but also substantially prop up the state economy. A new global low wage class has been created by these modern migrant workers, invisible in everyday life in Germany. These are the people who clean our houses, look after our parents and harvest our strawberries.

When almost a whole generation searching for work migrates, what are the consequences on family and social structures in Romania? What happens to the generation of grandparents who support the family right to the end? Who holds responsibility for these European work models?

STRAWBERRY ORPHANS is a werkgruppe2 production commissioned by National Theatre Marin Sorescu Craiova and Staatstheaters Braunschweig for the Internationals Cooperationsprojekt „The Art of Ageing“ of European Theatre Convention