About the work
Milch & Schuld (Milk & Guilt) is a play by the playwright Sina Ahlers, born in 1990, about surrogacy and the ideas attached to motherhood. Ahlers wrote it as a commission for the drama company of Staatstheater Kassel; the stage rights are handled by Felix Bloch Erben, and it is cast with at least two actresses. The world premiere, directed by Sarah Franke, took place on 6 December 2024 at the TiF – Theater im Fridericianum in Kassel.
Plot
A one-legged pigeon in a station hall watches two women who are waiting separately yet are bound to each other. Young Zartie, who has few other ways of earning money, is paid to carry a child for the involuntarily childless couple around Holly. When prenatal diagnostics reveal an anomaly in the foetus, the commissioning side wants to pull out, and the terms of the contract turn out to be unclear. The pigeon keeps probing with questions, while the two women’s monologues gradually open into a conversation in which they draw closer to each other.
Cultural significance
By taking up surrogacy, the play addresses a subject that is rarely discussed in public and asks whether pregnancy, care work and maternal love can be weighed in money. Critics noted that it shows motherhood without idealising it. After the Kassel premiere it has already been restaged; in 2026 the taz praised a text that alternates between sobriety and anger and keeps questions open instead of prescribing answers.