MomA - Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers

Sigrun is an award-winning playwright who has solid artistry behind her, but who now lacks work. One evening she seeks out Makena; a girl she took care of, and cared for, for many years.

Makena now runs her own theater with great success, and Sigrun is convinced that the young woman can help her out of unemployment. She can do that too. The only problem is that the two do not completely agree on which rules apply. Or who decides.

MomA is a story about how happy you can be from feeling indispensable, and how painful it can be to let go.

MomA was nominated for the national Ibsen award 2025.

The jury's statement:
MomA is the fifth work and the culmination of Goksøyr & Martens's magnificent pentalogy, whose partnership bears witness to the fact that good texts are not necessarily written by one person in the theatre. The drama takes a razor-sharp look at identity markers, and who we are to each other in both good and bad times. MomA is reference-rich and bold, and in this fearless story we meet the young up-and-coming theatre manager Makena and her aunt Sigrun, an older, experienced performing artist who is struggling to get work. Sigrun has acted as a bonus mum to Makena, whose own mother suffered from illness. Now that Makena has become an artistic success, the dynamic is reversed: Sigrun has come to ask her for a favour. A central theme is the relationship between life and art: Who owns history, and when do you have the right to use it artistically? The fragility and volatility of Makena's current - and Sigrun's former - power is underpinned by the fact that the action is set in the theatre industry, a field characterised by many temporary contracts and economic uncertainty. Goksøyr and Martens have written complex characters, where the two supporting characters, with the help of effective and sharp dialogue, also appear as fully-fledged individuals. The result is a dramatic page-turner, where the tension increases in step with the increasingly oppressive atmosphere.