by Rabea Edel Adapted for the stage by Alice Buddeberg and Nina Steinhilber Premiere19. September 2025
What do we know about our mothers and what do our children know about us? When do we really know a person, their story, their life? How much remains unsaid? A phenomenon that seems almost symptomatic of the post-war period continues to affect subsequent generations: the silence in families, the buried, concealed and repressed. Rabea Edel confronts the ghosts of the past, traces lives from the beginning of the last century to the present day and meets women who are constantly searching for their place in life, a future, perhaps happiness. Mothers and daughters. Suitcases full of memories that have been packed away. Losses, flight and new beginnings. Homelessness. With great emotional impact, Rabea Edel tells of the long shadows that past events and experiences cast far into our present, of the search for answers and the all-changing power of love. Raisa, Martha, Selma and Dina - four women, four generations, four lives. In Alice Buddeberg's production, Portrait of My Mother with Ghosts comes to the stage for the first time.