BY ANNIE ERNAUX
"The Event" (2000) by Nobel Prize winner for literature Annie Ernaux is a relentless testimony that retrospectively recounts an illegal abortion performed by the first-person narrator Annie while she was studying in France in 1963.
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Berliner Ensemble
An abortion is a very personal decision and always a political one, as it touches on issues of jurisdiction, gender, religion, and class.
At the same time, Ernaux describes the concrete, life-threatening intervention in as well as the social grip on the female body and its powerful mechanisms, such as incapacitation and stigmatization. From different time levels, Ernaux seeks a truthful language for her memories about a topic that has often been kept silent and collective until today.
Just as the young literary student Annie endures "the event" for her bodily self-determination as a woman alone and barely survives, in Ernaux's later work as an author, the language she finds for it becomes the event itself.
(Program in German)
Additional information
ABOUT THE PLAY
THE EVENT
BY ANNIE ERNAUX
GIVING VOICE TO SHAME
Terminating a pregnancy is a deeply personal decision, but one that is significantly influenced by political issues of jurisdiction, gender, religion, and class. "The Event" is a relentless testimony that looks back on an illegal abortion performed on the first-person narrator during her studies in France in 1963/64. From different time periods, Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux searches for an authentic language to express her memories of a topic that is still often kept secret, yet is a collective one. She describes both the concrete and life-threatening intervention of the so-called "angel makers" and society's control over the female body—through powerful social mechanisms of shame, stigmatization, and classist violence, as well as through the image of women underlying these mechanisms. The young literature student Annie endures "the event" for her physical and professional self-determination as a woman alone and barely survives it. The author Ernaux, 35 years her senior, finds a language for her experience that becomes a universal event: "I had given birth to a life and a death at the same time in the dormitory toilet. For the first time, I felt like a link in a chain of women connecting generations." In Laura Linnenbaum's production, three actresses come together to embody Annie in different phases of her life and at the same time tell the timeless story of her life. • Amely Joana Haag
WITH Nina Bruns, Pauline Knof, Kathrin WehlischDIRECTOR Laura Linnenbaum STAGE DESIGN Daniel RoskampCOSTUMES Michaela Kratzer MUSIC David Rimsky-KorsakovLIGHTING Rainer Casper DRAMATURGY Amely Joana Haag
Performance rights @ Gallimard
THE EVENT
BY ANNIE ERNAUX
GIVING VOICE TO SHAME
Terminating a pregnancy is a deeply personal decision, but one that is significantly influenced by political issues of jurisdiction, gender, religion, and class. "The Event" is a relentless testimony that looks back on an illegal abortion performed on the first-person narrator during her studies in France in 1963/64. From different time periods, Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux searches for an authentic language to express her memories of a topic that is still often kept secret, yet is a collective one. She describes both the concrete and life-threatening intervention of the so-called "angel makers" and society's control over the female body—through powerful social mechanisms of shame, stigmatization, and classist violence, as well as through the image of women underlying these mechanisms. The young literature student Annie endures "the event" for her physical and professional self-determination as a woman alone and barely survives it. The author Ernaux, 35 years her senior, finds a language for her experience that becomes a universal event: "I had given birth to a life and a death at the same time in the dormitory toilet. For the first time, I felt like a link in a chain of women connecting generations." In Laura Linnenbaum's production, three actresses come together to embody Annie in different phases of her life and at the same time tell the timeless story of her life. • Amely Joana Haag
WITH Nina Bruns, Pauline Knof, Kathrin WehlischDIRECTOR Laura Linnenbaum STAGE DESIGN Daniel RoskampCOSTUMES Michaela Kratzer MUSIC David Rimsky-KorsakovLIGHTING Rainer Casper DRAMATURGY Amely Joana Haag
Performance rights @ Gallimard
Participating artists
von Annie Ernaux (Autor/in)
Nina Bruns
Pauline Knof
Kathrin Wehlisch
Laura Linnenbaum
Daniel Roskamp
Michaela Kratzer
David Rimsky-Korsakow
Rainer Casper
Amely Joana Haag
Dates
April 2026
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