Luxembourg performance-maker Larisa Faber will bring White Gold to Camden People’s Theatre this autumn. This multidisciplinary dance-theatre piece brings together clowning, ballet and theatre, delving into Europe’s lucrative white asparagus industry and the pandemic’s impact on those who sustained it. It follows the relationship between a seasonal worker and the daughter she supports from afar, revealing the human cost behind one of the continent’s most prized springtime delicacies. Performances will run Wednesday 25th – Saturday 28th November 2026.
White Gold is told from the perspective of a single ballet-dancing asparagus spear longing to be picked, alongside a mother working the fields to fund her gifted daughter’s dream of becoming a ballerina. Leading the cast is Kristin Winters (Scheherazade, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin; Lovefool, National Theatre Luxembourg; Hamlet, Theatre Royal Bath) as The Last Spear, whose pursuit of perfection comes at a cost, alongside Christine Eiffes, a pioneer of contemporary dance in Luxembourg and co-founder of the Théâtre Dansé et Muet association, as The Roots.
In Germany, Luxembourg and France, asparagus season is a multimillion-euro industry, complete with its own traditions and festivals. Known as Weisses Gold, or ‘white gold’ in German, the harvest relies on Eastern European workers travelling to the region to work the fields. Inspired by those who lost their lives during the pandemic, White Gold draws parallels between vegetable production and the high-pressure world of dance, exploring the human cost of labour and the lengths people will go to sustain the things they love.
Writer and Director Larisa Faber comments, ‘As an eternal people-pleaser, failed ballerina and major asparagus fan, I felt compelled to do a show about white asparagus (aka the queen of the springtime), told through the world of ballet. It’s a show about needing to be picked and the price of perfection. It’s also a show about the lengths parents go to for their children, particularly those who leave their countries behind.’
Co-produced by neimënster as part of Larisa Faber’s associate artist appointment. Supported by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg, Fondation Eté, SACEM and UCL European Institute. Play based on a text commissioned by UCL’s European Institute in 2024 for their European Literary Map of London project. London run at Camden People’s Theatre supported by Kulturlx, Arts Council Luxembourg, and the Luxembourg Embassy in the UK.
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