About the work
“Mädchenschrift” (roughly “Girl’s Script”) is a monologue for one actress by Özlem Özgül Dündar, written as a commission from Schauspielhaus Bochum for young audiences. Selen Kara directed the premiere on 28 August 2022 at the Bochum theatre’s Theaterrevier venue; the production included passages drawn from conversations with Drama Control, a group of young people who help shape the theatre’s work. The rights are held by Rowohlt Theater Verlag.
Plot
In an unbroken stream of consciousness, almost without capital letters or punctuation, a young woman describes how her body changes during puberty and how the way others look at her changes with it: her family, strangers and above all men. A gap opens between what she feels and what others see in her; scrutiny, judgement and sexual harassment close in on her more and more. In the end her account turns into an indictment and a demand that the harassment stop.
Cultural significance
The text combines description, self-exploration and manifesto and belongs to emancipatory theatre for young audiences; a reference to Goethe’s “Faust” places the abuses it describes in a long tradition. Dündar received the German-Dutch Kaas & Kappes award for it in 2023, and in 2024 the play was nominated for the German Youth Theatre Prize.