My Mother Had Two Faces: Reflections on Beauty, Aging, and Acceptance.

A one-woman show by Karin Trachtenberg

My Mother Had Two Faces: Reflections on Beauty, Aging and Acceptance is an autobiographical one-woman dramatic comedy that dares to expose what lies beneath the mask of the perfect mother. Discovering her mother’s diaries after her passing, Karin, the heroine, begins to examine the history of their complicated relationship from the gritty, urban streets of New York to her Swiss mother’s manicured orderliness.

The story follows her mother’s exodus from her homeland to pursue stardom, and how her fixation with beauty and outward appearances influenced Karin’s sense of worth. Engaged in dialogue with her mirrored reflection, Karin wrestles with her own inner demons. What does the mirror uncover when we strip away the makeup?

A humorous and moving journey of self-reflection, this show is sure to resonate with anyone struggling with a conflicted parental relationship. Presented in a pseudo-fairytale style, utilizing multimedia and theatrical masks, My Mother Had Two Faces tips the Disney delusion on its head revealing the enchanting as well as the underbelly. Karin explains “In embodying my mother, an image of the Good Mother/Bad Mother emerged. Introducing theatrical masks is a powerful dramatization of those roles.”

My Mother Had Two Faces has toured Los Angeles, Boston, and New York to full houses and rave reviews and will be in Northampton on May 23rd and then off to The Edinburgh Fringe this summer.