DREI OSTDEUTSCHE FRAUEN BETRINKEN SICH UND GRÜNDEN DEN IDEALEN STAAT

Anecdotes, analysis and alcohol – big life questions from the kitchen table to the world

Three friends round a kitchen table while it’s night outside: Annett Gröschner, Peggy Mädler and Wenke Seemann talk. About themselves as “Eastern women”, whatever that means, about the joy of lives that don’t turn out as expected, about the present, which is constantly being interrupted by the past. There is drinking, laughter and attempts to grapple with things, it’s about scraps of memories and contradictions, about how complex influences are and how distant some ideals have become over the years. Their book is as witty and warm-hearted about memories and reinventing oneself as any major discussion of society should be. Annett Gröschner, Peggy Mädler and Wenke Seemann put their book with the promising title ‘Drei Ostdeutsche Frauen betrinken sich und gründen den idealen Staat’ (Three East German women get drunk and found the ideal state) on stage in a performed reading. And they also make up a punch from a recipe in the book. They project illustrations from the book for everyone to see. They drink the punch. They read. They play a song. Drink and read some more. So it turns into a proper performance reading. Annett Gröschner (born in 1964 in Magdeburg) is a writer and journalist. In 2021 she was awarded the Berlin Art Prize (the Fontane Prize) and the Klopstock Prize by the State of Saxony-Anhalt. Peggy Mädler (born in 1976 in Dresden) is an author and dramaturg. In 2019 her second novel ‘Wohin wir gehen’ (Where We’re Going) won the Fontane Literature Prize awarded by the town of Neuruppin and the State of Brandenburg. Wenke Seemann, (born in 1978 in Rostock) is a freelance artist and social scientist. Her works have been seen in galleries such as the Kunsthalle in Rostock, the Albertinum Dresden and the Sprengel Museum in Hanover.