Annie Ernaux: A Woman's Story
"Only she, her words, her hands, her gestures, her laughter, her walk, connected the woman I am with the child I was."
How do we move in the space of our memory? How does the process of remembering work at all? An archaeology of images, gestures and everyday sentences. From individual fragments, Annie Ernaux, in An Ordinary Woman, pieces together the life of her mother, who came from a poor working-class background in the town of Yvetot. A ritual against the fading of memory. Through precise, evocative language, the French writer explores her relationship to a world from which she has gradually alienated herself through her education and way of life.
"My mother had to look in an encyclopedia to explain who Van Gogh was. My mother, who was born into a subjugated environment, had to become the story so that I would not feel so lonely and machinated in a world that subjugates words and thoughts and into which I - as she wished - to go."
What does a proper remembrance of a mother look like? Shaggy? Glittery? Sentimental?
All images fade at some point.
A button, hastily sewn on before I go to school. A throaty laugh that reveals teeth and gums.
How can we relate to a person who is absent or invisible through something physical that can be touched?
Translation: Anna Kareninová
Director: Eliška Říhová
Dramaturgy: Kateřina Součková, Matěj Samec
Scene and costumes: Veronika Traburová
Music: Martin Konvička
Production: Magda Juránková
Cast: Ivana Uhlířová, Petr Uhlík
Photo: Andrea Černá
Opening: 20. 1. 2024
Length: 1 hour without break
Please note: The production works more extensively with hay/straw. If you have any health issues related to this, please consider attending the production.
Tickets:
300 Kč
200 Kč students, Prague 5 permanent reisdents