Mama’s Coming Back, Poor Orphan [Maman revient pauvre orphelin]

A 62-year-old man is in the hospital; he is talking to himself. He has just woken up from an operation, and he's delirious, asking his mother if they could spend a nice Sunday together. But it is God who replies: “Mama's coming back, poor orphan.” The man does not believe in God, so he continues his monologue with other figures in his unconscious mind: an anesthesiologist, the director of the nursing home, and finally, his father, who died during the Holocaust. Even though the man has no memory of him, his father responds. Childhood and adulthood merge and blur in this intimate encounter with history.

Format: Drama

Cast Size: 4 men 2 women, or 3 men and 1 woman. It can also be performed as a monologue.

Running Time: 30 minutes

Notes:

Jean-Claude Grumberg, “Three plays. ‘The Workroom’ (‘L’Atelier’, 1979), ‘On the Way to the Promised Land’ (‘Vers toi Terre promise’, 2006) and ‘Mama’s Coming Back, Poor Orphan’ (‘Maman revient, pauvre orphelin’, 1994)”, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2021. See also: France 3, 29.12.1994, https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/video/cpc94010554/jean-claude-grumberg-maman-revient-pauvre-orphelin

Original or Prominent Production:
Directed by Philippe Adrien; play by Jean-Claude Grumberg; Comédie-Française production; set and costumes by Goury; music by Ghédalia Tazartès; with Simon Eine, Alain Pralon, Catherine Hiegel... [et al.] Paris (France): Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, 11-15-1994.

Original Language: French

Publisher:

Actes Sud Papiers 1993. Also in “Les courtes” Babel N° 159 (Coédition Actes-Sud, Labor, L’Aire, Leméac). In “Three pièces contemporaines”, textes et dossiers, La bibliothèque Gallimard, 2002. English version: “Three plays. ‘The Workroom’ (‘L’Atelier’, 1979), ‘On the Way to the Promised Land’ (‘Vers toi Terre promise’, 2006) and ‘Mama’s Coming Back, Poor Orphan’ (‘Maman revient, pauvre orphelin’, 1994)”, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2021.

Experience(s) Chronicled: Allegoric or Metaphoric Representations | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | Women and the Holocaust