CUTTY SHELLS'
MOTHER'S SHIP
Performance-Collage​
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Preview/Tafelhalle
14.6.2025
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Premiere/Kulturforum Fürth
11.12.2025
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What shines, groans and drips from the broken archetypes of the mother?
MOTHER'S SHIP deals with the subject of being a mother and thus consciously sets itself apart from the subject of motherhood. MOTHER'S SHIP is not an everyday picture about bringing up children. MOTHER'S SHIP is not a report on parenthood. MOTHER'S SHIP wants to leave the heteronormative playing field and look beneath the veil of maternal icons, freeing the phenomenon of ‘motherhood’ from its myth and reinforcing it. To this end, director Katharina Simons chooses a stubborn yet inviting view of the subject and asks: ‘Can anyone be a mother?’
Photography by Sebastian Autenrieth
(c) Gabriel de Melo Quadros, Editing K.S.
The first steps in the construction of MOTHER'S SHIP began with a research trilogy in the 24/25 season. Now it is finished: a ship, heavy with voices and myths, which carries the material of the previous works MOTHER'S TALE, MOTHER'S SCREAM and MOTHER'S MILK within it. Their echoes weave themselves into a pulsating fabric that propels and holds this ship together:
Ancient voices we barely recognise whisper beneath the
earth, tickling at the longing for the primordial mother.
Intimacy and discomfort fuel a shimmering sway and bring
hidden narratives to the surface through the raw power of the cry.
A river of milk that pours over the usual boundaries of body, identity and care and opens the view to new forms of living together.
With MOTHER'S SHIP, Katharina Simons and her team unfold a collage-like journey that leads under the veil of motherhood. They do not explain - they reveal: Through embodied rituals, sound, language and silence, portals open up to other forms of knowledge about closeness, care and connection. The mother does not appear as a role, but as a force. As an idea. As transference. As empowerment.
MOTHER'S SHIP is an invitation to listen to what has always been there. Immediately beneath the surface. An invitation to re-member.
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concept/direction KATHARINA SIMONS
performance ELINA BRAMS RITZAU, FRIEDERIKE HEINE, KATHARINA SIMONS, ZOE KNIGHTS
stage/costume NASTJA ANTONENKO
sound JAN PFITZER
dramaturgy PATI MASLOWSKA
outside eyes MIRIAM SAPIO
project manager TIM STEINHEIMER
assistance AIDEN DORIGUZZI BREATTA
foto REBECCA PRELL
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PREVIEW
14.06.2025 Tafelhalle Nürnberg
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PREMIERE​
11.12.2025 Kulturforum Fürth
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Die Trilogie MOTHER'S SHIP entsteht in Koproduktion mit dem Kulturforum Fürth und in Kooperation mit der Tafelhalle Nürnberg.
MOTHER'S SHIP wird gefördert vom Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien. Das Projekt wird ermöglicht durch den Bayerischen Landesverband für zeitgenössischen Tanz (BLZT) aus Mitteln des Bayerischen Staatsministeriums für Wissenschaft und Kunst. Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von der Stadt Fürth und der Tanzzentrale der Region Nürnberg e.V.
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Photography by Sebastian Autenrieth
(c) Gabriel de Melo Quadros, Editing K.S.
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The first steps in the construction of MOTHER'S SHIP began with a research trilogy in the 24/25 season. Now it is finished: a ship, heavy with voices and myths, which carries the material of the previous works MOTHER'S TALE, MOTHER'S SCREAM and MOTHER'S MILK within it. Their echoes weave themselves into a pulsating fabric that propels and holds this ship together:
Ancient voices we barely recognise whisper beneath the
earth, tickling at the longing for the primordial mother.
Intimacy and discomfort fuel a shimmering sway and bring
hidden narratives to the surface through the raw power of the cry.
A river of milk that pours over the usual boundaries of body, identity and care and opens the view to new forms of living together.
