The large green olives from the small Sicilian town of Campobello are considered a delicacy around the world and find their way onto our tables too. They are picked by thousands of migrant seasonal workers who travel to southern Italy for the harvest each year. Their labour is indispensable, yet they live in precarious conditions and, as workers in European agriculture, usually remain invisible.

Drawing on more than two years of research on the ground, Swiss theatre-maker Eva-Maria Bertschy, Malian filmmaker Abou Bakar Sidibé and Sicilian actor Daniela Macaluso investigate precarious working conditions and mafia involvement in the olive harvest. Documentary testimony, live music and fictional storytelling combine in a compelling evening of theatre.

At the center are Simona and Amadou, whose paths cross in Campobello. Their love becomes political because it challenges an order founded on inequality, institutional racism and economic exploitation. Together with others, they resist a system that needs their labour while devaluing their lives. Their resistance and their struggle for a dignified life are repeatedly undermined, until institutional failures have life-threatening consequences.

CAMPOBELLO tells the stories of the people behind our food and the power structures that perpetuate this inequality. At the same time, the piece portrays a Europe full of contradictions: a continent that depends on migrant labour yet all too often denies the people doing that work security, rights and a sense of belonging.


Text + Direction: Eva-Maria Bertschy
With: Abou Bakar Sidibé, Daniela Macaluso
Set + Costume Design: Lea Burkhalter
Composition + Musical Direction: Kojack Kossakamvwe
Video: Abou Bakar Sidibé
Dramaturgy: Luca Maier
Sound: Gabriele Gugliara, Nathan Tagliavini
Lighting Design + Technical Direction: Sylvain Faye
Video Technology: Moritz von Dungern
Set Construction: Aurelio Ciaperoni
Costume Production: Souleymane Diallo
Assistant Director + Video Editing: Tiziano Locci
Production: Letizia Gullo, Camille Jamet
Created at: Teatro Garibaldi, Palermo, 17 December 2025
Production: HERproductions
Co-production: Fondazione Studio Rizoma Palermo, Theater Winkelwiese, Schlachthaus Theater Bern, euro-scene Leipzig, Prima Onda Fest / Genìa Lab Art Palermo, in collaboration with Arci Porco Rosso Palermo

Supported by Stadt Zürich Kultur, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Landis & Gyr, Anne-Marie Schindler Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Corymbo Stiftung, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Tunis, Fabriktheater Zürich