Beyond Caring

A few people arrive to work the night shift in a meat factory. They meet for the first time. They are employed as cleaners, by a temp agency. They are all on zero-hours contracts. Every shift, they clean. Every four hours, they take a break. They drink tea or coffee together. They read magazines. They chat. As it gets light, they go home, or to another job. The cycle goes on. And on. Strangers. Until something stirs, until isolated people get too close to one another, too fast.

Through investigation, first-hand experience and with the involvement of people working on zero-hours contracts, Alexander Zeldin’s brutally honest and darkly humorous play, written through devising with the company, exposes stories of an invisible class.

Alexander Zeldin is a writer and director for theatre and film. His play Beyond Caring had its premiere at the Yard Theatre in 2014 and was later transferred to the National Theatre in 2015. That year, he received the Quercus Trust Award and became Associate Director at Birmingham Rep. His acclaimed play Love opened at the National Theatre in 2016, was later shown at Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe and adapted for the BBC. In 2017 he was named Artist in Residence at the NT, and in 2018 received the Arts Foundation Fellowship for Literature. Faith, Hope and Charity, the final part of The Inequalities trilogy, premiered at the NT in 2019. Zeldin is Associate Director at the National Theatre, Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe and CDN Normandie-Rouen. In 2020, he founded A Zeldin Company to tour and produce his work, including Une mort dans la famille (2022) and The Confessions (2023).

DOX and The Prague Crossroads Festival
Like the Prague Crossroads Festival, DOX finds inspiration and value in the legacy of Václav Havel. Both institutions emphasise openness, civic engagement, dialogue, and critical thinking, and their programming has long explored issues of freedom of speech, responsibility, power, memory, and human rights through different art forms. Both institutions focus on interdisciplinary projects that combine theatre, visual arts, literature, and performance with critical reflection on the present. As part of the programme of this year’s Prague Crossroads Festival, visitors can enjoy free admission to the current exhibitions at DOX.