Ester's Book
When, in 2003, my mother Ester was moved to a residential care
home at the age of 85 already suffering from senile dementia,
I decided to complete the performance which for some time had
existed as an idea and a draft - a story of her life.
In a comfortable but unfamiliar room in a residential care home,
mother and daughter sit and talk. With a stubbornness bordering on
the tragicomic, the same words and terms are constantly repeated.
The dialogue reawakens past experiences, unrealised dreams and
plans for the future, which only exists in a world of
fantasy.
Physical activity is minimal but a diary from the end of the
Second World War, a photo album and private film clips from half a
century ago reveal different layers of Ester's life. Music and
songs from a distant youth accompany pictures and texts, bringing
closer historical changes which shook and marked her
generation.
The story of my mother is also a reflection on becoming old in
present day Denmark, about loneliness and separation.
Nobody is born old. It has been my wish to give voice to some of
the fragments of my mother's life which would otherwise have been
buried with her.
I am Ester's Book.
Iben Nagel Rasmussen
Holstebro, 2005
On Stage:
Version in Danish and English: Iben Nagel
Rasmussen and Uta
Motz
Version in Italian: Iben Nagel Rasmussen and Elena
Floris
Text and Idea: Iben Nagel
Rasmussen
Musical arrangement:
Uta Motz and Anna Stigsgaard
Technique: Jori Snell
Film: Halfdan Rasmussen and Jan
Rüsz
Photo: Jan Rüsz and Morten
Stricker
Film montage: Torgeir Wethal
Scenic arrangement: Knud Erik
Knudsen
Graphics: Rina Skeel
Scenic advisor: Eugenio Barba
Dansk: ESTERS
BOG - Ovenstående tekst på dansk
Italiano: IL
LIBRO DI ESTER - Il testo di cui sopra in
italiano
Technical Information
English: Technical
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Countries and Places
2017
Denmark (Holstebro)
2016: Denmark (Holstebro)
2015: Denmark (Holstebro)
2014:
Denmark
(Holstebro)
2013: Denmark (Holstebro)
2012: Denmark (Holstebro)
2011: Poland
2010: Italy
2009: Denmark, Italy, Poland
2008: Cuba, Denmark, Malta
2007: Denmark, Italy, Norway, Poland
2005: Denmark
International Festivals
FestiwalTeatralny Inne
Sytuacj, Bygoszcz, Poland
(2011)
Kulturfestival Mørket, Mid and West Jutland,
Denmark (2009)
Malta Summer Arts Festival in Valletta, Malta
(2008)
Festival Magdalena
Sin Fronteras II, Santa Clara, Cuba (2008)