Annie Ernaux: An Ordinary Woman

"Only she, her words, her hands, gestures, her laughter, her walk connected the woman I am with the child I was."

How does a person move through the space of their memory, and how does the process of remembering actually work? From fragments - images, gestures, everyday phrases - Annie Ernaux constructs in the book "An Ordinary Woman" the life of her mother, who came from a poor working-class background in the city of Yvetot. With precise, evocative language, the French writer examines her relationship to a world from which she gradually became estranged through education and a different way of life.

"My mother had to look in an encyclopedia to explain to me who Van Gogh was. My mother, born into a subordinate world, had to become a story so that I would not feel so alone and artificial in a world that subjugates words and thoughts, and into which I - as she wished - departed."

What should a proper memory of one's mother look like - tearful, glittering, sentimental? All images will eventually disappear. A guttural laugh that bares teeth and gums - how through something physical, something tangible, can we relate to a person who is absent or invisible?

The production makes extensive use of hay and straw. Viewers with health issues related to this should consider whether to attend the performance.