Plea of a convicted mother
by Tom Lanoye
Gas is the monologue of a mother. The mother of a terrorist who carried out a poison gas attack on the subway. 184 dead, including 70 students and 20 young children become victims of the attack. The jihadist is shot dead by police at the scene. The mother tells. She cannot comprehend. She cannot grasp the horror, but at the same time it is about her son, her only child. She tells of her life as a single mother, remembers the birth, childhood and youth, the talents and idiosyncrasies of her dead son. She visualizes their relationship to each other, admits their love, their incomprehension, their bewilderment, and reconstructs how the son slowly slipped away from her, searching and digging in her memory for possible clues she might not have read correctly. No, she doesn't want understanding, she's not looking for sympathy. She simply wants to try to reassemble herself over the words. Without whitewashing his actions and without sparing herself, she makes herself a mirror of our society.
Text source and further information about this event: http://www.staatstheater-mainz.com/web/veranstaltungen/schauspiel18-19/gas
