Your Mother [Votre maman]

Five scenes represent a son’s last five visits to see his mother before her death. His mother has Alzheimer’s disease, and in the midst of her delirium, dramatic memories resurface of the persecution she endured during World War II. The dialogue is nonsensical; the mother sometimes mistakes her son for the director of the nursing home. The son’s visits, moreover, are often frantic and result in strange misunderstandings. Then one day, the mother disappears. At the end of the play, a few concluding lines are read like a prayer: What will happen to the flickering memory of the Holocaust when the last survivor disappears into the Polish sky? What will we, the orphans, do to ensure that memory is never forgotten?

Format: Drama

Cast Size: 2M/1F

Notes:

Performed as part of Itinérance en Pays d’Oise, France.

Original or Prominent Production:
Directed by Vincent Ecrepont; scenography by Caroline Ginet; costumes by Isabelle Deffin; lighting by Claire Gondrexon; co-produced by Compagnie A vrai dire, Théâtre du Beauvaisis and Maison des arts et des loisirs de Laon. Performance: Chaumont-en-Vexin (France): s.l., 09-23-2013. Performed by Françoise Bertin, Laurent d'Olce, and Michel Derville.

Original Source Material: BNF Richelieu - Autograph manuscript, 2011. 7-COL-250(339) - Typescript with handwritten corrections, 2011. 4-COL-250(340)

Original Language: French

Publisher:

Actes Sud Papiers, 2012.

Production Rights Holder:

“Chantiers Nomades” a center for research and continuing education on contemporary artistic issues, in partnership with France Culture and SACD.

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