Ms. M

In 1996, Mrs. M kisses her husband goodbye in the Gothenburg metro and makes her way to her son's school, but never arrives. To this day, the Swedish police, her husband and children, and her family in Iran have been haunted by the same question: Where did she go after stepping off the train? Over time, even the question of whether she is alive has fallen away. What remains is the mystery of her destination. Twenty-five years later, her niece, born shortly after her disappearance, begins a forensic reconstruction of her story through VHS tapes, letters, children's drawings, and photo albums that Mrs. M had sent to her family back in Iran. She starts interviewing family members and wandering in her aunt's story with a group of collaborators. This performance reimagines the documentary narrative of an Iranian woman who left her country with her family during the Iran–Iraq War. After periods of living in Türkiye and Belgium, she eventually settled in Sweden, where her trace on the map was lost forever. Produced during the pandemic, the performance brought together Iranian, Turkish, Belgian, and Swedish performers in an online collaboration so that, alongside the Swedish police, Mrs. M's husband and children, and her family in Iran, they could reflect on the same question: Where did Mrs. M go after stepping off the train? Mrs. M was presented at Reconnect Digital Theatre Festival in 2021.