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What are we all willing to accept to keep our jobs?<p> "We want to be free, but we are afraid of freedom.<br> Choosing and deciding are both an obligation and a freedom.<br> Stefano Massini</p><p> Ten women from the Picard & Roche factory committee are waiting for the eleventh, their spokesperson, who has been negotiating their future with the new owners for the past four hours. Upon her return, they are to vote on behalf of the two hundred female and male workers they represent. The suit-and-tie bosses' proposal is simple: if the Picard & Roche workers agree to cut their lunch break by just seven minutes, the factory will not close, and all jobs will be saved.</p><p> A social thriller then unfolds, prompting a dual reflection on the market value of labor and the growing awareness of the mechanisms of employer domination. The new owners' proposal, while seemingly honorable, forces these women to make a crucial choice: to save the factory, their colleagues, and themselves. The initial euphoria of the good news (the factory isn't closing) gives way to a debate where each woman takes a stand based on her personality, seniority, family or personal needs, and concern for the collective good.</p><p> What are we all willing to accept to keep our jobs?</p><p> It's Blanche, the spokesperson for the factory committee, who poses the question. It's up to the others, through their vote, to answer. And for the public to form their own opinion. A single, almost innocuous request, a "step" towards management, by giving up less than half their break, just seven minutes. And only one hour for the two hundred factory employees to choose. An ultimatum.</p><p> Stefano Massini's gripping play immerses us in real time in the tense stages of a crucial journey. A choral score about each character's path towards a shared thought, it opens a reflection on the difficulty of collective action, on what it means to choose, to agree, to convince one another, to believe in the word of another.<br><br> These women are of diverse ages and backgrounds, at different stages of their lives; each approaches the situation in her own way. It's a play about limits, about our capacity for compromise. The play offers political theater, but not militant theater. Because a factory committee is not a union. The central issue here is not the struggle itself, but the journey of choosing whether or not to engage in it.</p><p> This thought process, which passes through each of the eleven female workers and employees of Picard & Roche in just one hour, concentrates in the tension it creates everything that must be relinquished in order to move forward together: first, relinquishing what is taken for granted, and agreeing to make an effort to prevent the factory from closing. How far are they willing to compromise?<br><br> The dramatic structure of this closed-door drama allows us to follow a thought process in motion over a given period of time. Blanche, who represented this small group during the long negotiations with the new factory owners, encourages her colleagues to take the time to reflect on the significance of this pause, seemingly insignificant compared to the jobs saved.</p><p> Is it "a luxury or a right?" she asks. These seven minutes crystallize a broader relationship with time, leading us to consider what is and isn't essential. She also asserts that this same notion of time always works in favor of employers, who have the means to wait and increase the pressure. It's also a war of attrition, counting on the discouragement of the female workers and the erosion of their commitment.</p><p> Olivier Mellor</p>