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Sex_Death_and the_Internet

Samara Hersch and Company

How to Make a Life Performance
The photo shows a close-up of an older woman with her eyes closed. A hand gently touches her cheek. Warm light filters through a window in the background, focusing attention on the touch and her calm facial expression.
© Gregory Lorenzutti
The photo shows a profile close-up of an older woman with her eyes closed. A hand rests against her neck and chin. Warm light highlights the skin and the touch, while the blurred background keeps the focus on the gesture.
© Gregory Lorenzutti
A woman in her 90’s with grey hair, stands outside in the evening on a hill. The sky is full of clouds. She is wearing a shiny silver jacket. She looks out into the sky with ra-diant eyes.
© Gregory Lorenzutti
How to Make a Life Performance

Sex_Death_and the_Internet

Samara Hersch and Company

How old do you feel today? Do you ever get too old for sex? When was the last time you thought about death?

Sex and death are part of life, and yet we rarely talk about them openly and personally, especially with older people. Samara Hersch invites you to an unusually candid one-on-one encounter: Visitors meet women over 70 and engage in a dialogue about personal experiences and societal perceptions. Somewhere between strangeness and intimacy, an encounter emerges in which questions of age, desire, and transience can be explored through both closeness and distance. A deeply moving and intimate experience that invites you to take a fresh look at your own body and that of your counterpart, and to perceive both in their ever-changing nature.

Infos
  • Duration: 60 minutes per time slot
  • Language: German
  • Age: Recommended for ages 18 and up
  • German premiere
  • Note: To participate in the event, please send us a photo of yourself in advance that is about ten years old. The photo should capture an important moment in your life. It will be used exclusively during the event and will not be shared publicly. Please send it, along with your name and the time slot you booked, to: dramaturgie@mousonturm.de. Thank you.
Sponsors and Supporters

Concept & Direction: Samara Hersch
Associate Artist and Dramaturgy: Bec Reid
German Associate Artist and Translator: Ceren Yildirim and Anja Schneidereit
Text: Martin Hansen 
Photographer & Collaborating Artist (Australian Season): Ponch Hawkes
Website Design: Forde & Nicol
Sound Design (German Addition): Tilman Robinson
Technical Assistant: Matthias Schack-Arnott
Spatial Design (German Addition): Belle Santos
Produced by: Freya Waterson
German Cast: Alrun Stemmrich, Angelika Löfflat, Anna Gerstlacher, Asma AbdAllah-Alvarez Ramirez, Dorsey Bushnell, Helga Knoche-Harries, Karin Flaake, Ramona Lena Nieveler

“How to Make a Life?”, a festival as part of WDC 2026, is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, as well as by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Aventis Foundation as part of its “Vertrauensförderung” funding programme, and the Goethe-Institut Beijing. WDC 2026 is funded by the State of Hesse, the City of Frankfurt am Main and the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain.

Biography

Samara Hersch is an artist and theatre director working between Europe and Australia. Her practice investigates the encounter between contemporary performance and community en-gagement and her research explores intimacy as a political act, imagining different modalities that can be inhabited by non-professional performers and the public together. Samara re-ceived the prestigious Caroline Neuber Scholarship in Leipzig in 2023. She completed her Masters at DAS Theatre in Amsterdam in 2019.