Bevor ich es vergesse

A woman has to sort out her father’s affairs after his death – organising his funeral service and burial, clearing out his house and so on. Anyone who has ever done this knows it can lead to despair. The daughter fights against forgetting but, at the same time, is aware that she has to let go. The process of saying goodbye to her father, with all its absurd, embarrassing and painful moments and ambivalent memories, ultimately becomes a journey of reconciliation and a declaration of love to the deceased and to life itself.

The novel “Avant que j’oublie” (Before I Forget) won the Prix du Livre Inter in 2020.

Wiebke Puls was so inspired and touched by the novel’s individual way of dealing with a universal moment that she is now staging the text as a solo performance in the Schauspielhaus, playfully exploring the desperate – and sometimes desperately funny – circumstances of saying goodbye.

“They said you need to have a clear-out, pick out the nice stuff, decide what you want to keep and get rid of the rest. As quickly as you can.. That will definitely help you.”

– Anne Pauly