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

Snapshot

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.
Nationality of Author: French
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.

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Lifetime Achievement Award

The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Lifetime Achievement Award

On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.