JENOM MATKY VĚDÍ, O ČEM TEN ŽIVOT JE

A theatrical documentary on the border between grotesque and tragedy

The first one has two children, a traumatic birth and a clear vision that it doesn't matter what she has studied and what she will do next, because the children are the main thing and there is no ambition after all. The other lives in the wilderness in a straw hut, washes dishes in the bathtub, gives birth to children alone at home and prefers to grow vegetables for her family instead of returning to the system. Organic, of course. She got pregnant with her third at the beginning of her freshman year. At twenty one. The fourth finally sent her son's father to hell a year and a half after giving birth. She gave birth to her fifth at forty-two, she likes her son, but also her job and is very good at it. Children's playgrounds and mothers' speeches frighten her. For a long time, the sixth had no life, only work. Now he has a life but no job. He is currently writing a play about mothers. And there is the seventh, a left-wing feminist who went to the first demonstration a few days after giving birth, but is now, as she says, very liberal.

Seven women and they are all mothers. And mothers, you know what life is about. A theatrical documentary on the border between grotesque and tragedy, based on almost three years of time-lapse interviews. Embarrassingly authentic, even though we know authenticity is a bit of a whore. About how Czech society perceives motherhood and issues of the family budget. About appreciation and addiction. About what it means to be a mother in public space. About mothers on a pedestal and also on the shifter of capitalism. And of course about the nursing mafia. (And about sex.) And what about working on maternity leave?

Authors: Barbara Herz and Anna Smékalová
Directed by: Barbara Herz
Dramaturgy: Dagmar Radová, Anna Hoprich and Lucie Ferenzová
Expert cooperation: Šárka Kiršnerová
Design: Jana Hauskrechtová
Music: Ivan Acher

Starring: Lucie Andělová, Veronika Lazorčáková and Jiří Kniha

Performance duration: 90 minutes without intermission
Premiere: 28 February 2020