A cruise ship as a microcosm of the contemporary capitalist world: on the one hand, wealth is casually flaunted with unrestrained consumerism, and on the other, an almost invisible group of people clean, cook, wash and entertain under extreme conditions. But something is afoot – in the laundry room on one of the lower decks, the exploited workers are having a party that will shatter the cruiser, shaking up conventional rules.

Based in the present, Moldovan theatre maker Nicoleta Esinencu and teatru-spălătorie take a look at the past in ‘Dirty Laundry. The TrashOpera', their fourth production with HAU: time and again throughout history, social movements have emerged in which people have discussed various ways we can achieve a free and just world. Bold and radical ideas have been widespread. However, the capitalist order has worked hard over the last century to diminish and extinguish this political imagination. Today, freedom effectively means that you have no one to lean on, that you're on your own in the middle of the sea, in the middle of war, in the middle of capitalist catastrophe. So is an egalitarian, nature-loving, peaceful world just a pipe dream? Far removed from a patriarchal history of civilisation, Nicoleta Esinencu & teatru-spălătorie assert with powerful words and sound collage that it is precisely this world that is our heritage, looking ahead for social potential.