Neben Transom.org lief das Stück „Mothers Never Die“ im März 2024 in der Kurzstrecke 141 auf Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Hier kann die Besprechung mit Johann Mittmann und Julia Gabel angehört werden.
„Mothers Never Die“ ist auf Transom.org zu hören.
Mothers Never die
Duration: 4’00
with Laurence Prat
by Miri Berlin
Paris 2022
In 2023, Transom launched “Small, Random, and Meaningful.” It was a call out to producers to submit stories — short stories — „a small, random, one-off story or audio experiment that means a lot to you. And one that might not fit anywhere else.
During a visit in Paris at the end of 2022 I mentioned to Laurence that I would like to create an audio piece about the Unspeakable or Unutterable. The idea was to tell a story where we have difficulties finding the right words — it’s either because we’re laughing so hard that we can’t string a coherent sentence together, or because of challenging, upsetting, painful, traumatic experiences where we struggle to find the right words.
The only thing I knew was that the piece needed to be short. However, even an audio narrative of less than five minutes can feel too long if the “magic” does not occur — the special moment that resonates with me and ideally captivates the listeners.
I asked Laurence if she had a story to tell that she would like to share, and she did.
“Mothers Never Die” is my first audio storytelling in English — the shortest piece I’ve done so far, and the only one without any background music.
In this piece, alongside the spoken words, silence also prevails, expressing the unspoken.
Silence in radio or audio storytelling in general can be irritating; one wonders if there is a disruption, when it will continue. Silence can make us uncomfortable. Silence is often accompanied by music. Silence seems hard to bear.
When the silence unexpectedly gripped both of us during the recording, I was deeply moved and at the same time it was evident to me that the silence is a part of the story, and just as we give space to words, we must also give space to silence.
You can listen to the audio piece at Transom.org