Ewe Benbenek

She is already hanging in the air again, clinging to the chandelier with wet fingers. She, whose Polish mother worked herself to the bone cleaning in Germany, has managed to swing herself up into the glamorous world. But bathed in sweat of fear and with "existential tears" in her eyes, she is already sliding towards the abyss again - without a safety net to catch her ... In Juices by Ewe Benbenek, shame and self-doubt about never "really" belonging to mainstream society as a working-class and immigrant child turn into a recurring (nightmare) image. In her latest play, she wrestles with the ambivalent question of whether one (as an author) can ever detach oneself from one's own origins - or wants to. Kamila Polívková, theatre shooting star from the Czech Republic, premieres Benbenek's stirring flow of thoughts in her first directorial work in Germany. (National Theatre Mannheim)