First and Foremost a Woman

WHAT WAS YOUR OCCUPATION BEFORE COMING TO ITALY? (Did you work, study, other…)

After getting my degree in 2005 I opened a shop, a kind of emporium. It didn’t go well. I spent my childhood with my family in a small village 250km from the capital, Tbilisi. I went to the capital to study medicine. I couldn’t complete my specialization because it cost me 1500 lari per year (750 Euro), so I thought I ‘d earn some money opening a business. My father bought me a house so I could go to university. He was an engineer and my mother was Professor of Physics and Hydraulics at university. My dad died in my second year: it’s the money he left me that allowed me to open the shop. During my second year I also got married. I was expecting Anna. In 2003 I separated. I went to live with my mother in Tbilisi. The business collapsed after a year and a half. I lost all my money. But I didn’t lose my home.

Excerpt from "First and Foremost a Woman", reading/performance based on verbatim interviews to carers living in Italy.

First presented in Fucecchio (Fi)
Auditorium La Tinaia
Saturday 13 March 2010