By Lola Arias

Is motherhood a desire? Whose desire? Is procreation a job? What would happen if we went on a womb strike?

In 2022, the right to decide when and how to become a mother is a contested right. In many places, people are fighting for legal abortion, while in some places where it is already legal, people want to reverse the law. Discourse is polarised around the low birth rate, the possibilities of assisted fertilisation, the legalisation of surrogacy, adoption by single people and homosexual couples.

MOTHER TONGUE is an encyclopedia about procreation in the 21st century, about people wondering how to reinvent the word mother.
In a hybrid space between library and Wunderkammer, where documents, films and music are exchanged, the performers* reconstruct the past and discuss the future.

MOTHER TONGUE will take place as a mobile laboratory in different locations around the world with different performers*. The first edition of MOTHER TONGUE premiered in Bologna at ERT Emilia Romagna Teatro. After the Madrid edition in March 2022, MOTHER TONGUE will be produced at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin.

CASTING CALL
For this documentary theater piece by director Lola Arias, which will premiere at the Maxim Gorki Theater in fall 2022, we are looking for people with and without acting experience who deal with the topic of motherhood from a wide variety of contexts and perspectives. We are looking for migrant mothers, trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming gestational parents, persons who have resorted to artificial insemination, lesbian mothers, gay fathers, young mothers, women who have had abortions, mothers* and fathers* who have adopted, women who do not want to have children, and people who want to define the term motherhood differently.

Project period: approx. 8/June 2022 - 02/July 2022, as well as approx.18/August 2022 - 11/September 2022
Premiere: 11/September 2022 at the Maxim Gorki Theater.
In German and English.
The work will be remunerated.


Contact: If you are interested or have further questions, please contact Bibiana Mendes , if possible with a photo and a short description about yourself: bibiana.pmendes@gmail.com.

About Lola Arias
Lola Arias is a teater and film director, writer and performer. Her works, for which she works with both professional actors and amateurs, usually negotiate their life stories and move at the interface between reality and fiction. Her works in Germany include ATLAS DES KOMMUNISMUS and FUTURELAND, both at the Maxim Gorki Theater, as well as ICH BIN NICHT TOT, which was produced in cooperation with the Festival Theaterformen and Schauspiel Hannover. lolaarias.com