Kolektiv Igralke i Rajna Racz: MOTHERS

Ako ne budem majka… hoću li ostati sama? Ako ne budem majka, hoće li za mene reći “stara cura”? Ako ne budem majka, hoću li spoznati bezuvjetnu ljubav? Ako ne budem majka, hoće li mi biti žao kad već bude kasno?

Kolektiv Igralke and Rajna Racz
MOTHERS

Co-production: Kolektiv Igralke, Nahero House, Ulysses Theatre, Maska Institute (SLO)
Partners: Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc Rijeka, Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka; Ribnjak Youth Center, Maksimir Center for Culture and Information, Zagreb

If I don’t become a mother… will I end up alone? If I don’t become a mother, will they call me an “old maid”? If I don’t become a mother, will I experience unconditional love? If I don’t become a mother, will I regret it when it’s too late?

The authors from Kolektiv Igralke are in their (mid) thirties and feel their time for deciding about motherhood is running out. They feel like the first generation of women in their families who truly have the freedom of choice on this matter; they are financially independent, unlike their grandmothers, and being a mother is no longer taken for granted as it was for their mothers.

I’m pregnant. When I become a mother, will I ever be able to be equally creative? Will I become less talented because I won’t have time to dedicate to art? What if I love making performances more than being a mother?

The question of motherhood is also presented as an existential question for the authors who are freelance or independent artists, without rights to maternity leave, sick leave, or vacation time.

If I become a mother, will I maintain my career as an independent artist? Will I have to give up what I am, for something I will become?

In a world of accelerated capitalism and growing division between the poor and rich, in a world of uncertain future, constant threat of nuclear war, increasing migrations caused by ecological disasters, is it even morally right to think about bringing a new being to the planet? Can we still consider the decision to become a mother as something “natural” and “self-evident,” which breaks across women’s backs, without adequate system support?

The authors from Kolektiv Igralke (performances “Grandmas,” “Girls”) in their new project join forces with director and author Rajna Racz, who will already be a young mother during the research and creation of the performance. The collectively conceived work on the performance will be preceded by months of artistic and (auto)ethnographic research. The theatre will become a place of creation and gentle coexistence with a child, and the stage an arena for Kolektiv Igralke to face their own fears, hopes, traditional and contemporary ideas and imperatives about women, artists and mothers, and a space for freedom (of choice).

Shows

CREATIVE TEAM

Director and Author: Rajna Racz
Performers and Authors: Sendi Bakotić, Ana Marija Brđanović, Anja Sabol, Vanda Velagić
Set Designer and Sculptor: Paola Lugarić
Costume Designer: Tanja Blašković
Composer and Sound Technician: Marin Živković