We are so habituated to naturalistic drama, where what you see is what you get, that it takes a little while to get your bearings in a play that is not an objective, but a subjective account of reality. Despite all the clues—no snow, the Woman’s clothes, threatening trees—minutes pass before we realize that this is no ordinary story. Instead, it’s a metaphor-rich reading of a psychological situation, an ambient account of motherhood, love, abandonment, maybe on the brink of mental collapse. We see a woman who wants to care, with what can only be described as tough love, for a foundling child while standing up, more or less, to an enraged son? – a wolf in wolf’s clothing. We root for her. But who is who? In this symbolic fable, which like a child’s story nods to Little Red Riding Hood and like a Greek tragedy to Medea, a powerful image of unwilling motherhood imprints itself on our minds.
In this world of fractured memory and psychological pain, there are few safe places. And, when you find them, they are only temporary.
/“Why you always got to dig things up?”
A cabin deep in the woods.
A lost boy buried in the snow.
A lone woman.
And her wolf.
“You think you could keep him?
You know where that ends up.
Don’t you.
You no good with kids.”/
Read and performed by the ensemble: Joan Bentsen as the reader; Andrew Christiansen as the voice of the wolf; Lesley Leichtweis Bernardi as the body of the wolf, introducing Lisa Simioni as the child, Vanessa Poole as the mother.
[Language: English]
A reading envisioned and directed by Mariana Araoz, professor of Mask & Object Theatre and creator of the ©In-Balance method on stage. THE WOODS is performed in collaboration with Playmate Theatre Malmö.
*With thanks for their support to Stenkrossen , Lunds kommun and Region Skåne
Who are we?
Teatercentrum är de fria professionella teatrarnas samarbets-, intresse- och informationsorganisation. Teatercentrum samlar idag drygt 100 fria teatrar som genomför över 10 000 föreställningar för mer än 700 000 personer varje år. Under Malmö Scenfest passar vi på att låta några av våra fantastiska medlemmar visa sina alster!
Theatre In-Balance is a multilingual theatre company based in Malmö, Sweden, built upon the challenge of gender balance within the performing arts, adapting and re-working techniques from the worlds of mask, puppetry, object theatre through the ©In Balance Method, created by Mariana Araoz. Founded in 2016, in Sweden, Theatre In-Balance also works in collaboration with theatre company Collectif Masque, based at La Maison de l’Équilibre du Genre in Paris.
Mariana Araoz runs her French theater company Collectif Masque in Paris also as in Sweden, based on a mask and puppet technique built on a gender-balance/gender fluid perspective and pro-ecology vision and world view. Mariana is Theatre In-Balance’s Artistic Director as well as permanent professor of theatre & mask at Teaterhögskolan Malmö (Lund University) since 2013. Mariana teaches drama and movement and her unique ©In-Balance method at some of the world’s leading theatre schools, including Teaterhögskolan Malmö, Paris National Conservatory and Ecole du Jeu Paris, Saint Olaf College in Minneapolis, Columbia University in New York, Boris Shchukin’s Institut in Moscow, and Hong Kong Theatre Academy as well as Khio, Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, Norway. In 2025, Theatre In-Balance opened the In-Balance Incubator and Institute in Malmö/Lund for outreach, professional training in the In-Balance Method and open masterclasses.
