Over six decades, from 1960 to 2020, Josefina Orlaineta, mother of Anacarsis Ramos, worked more than forty jobs in Campeche, southern Mexico, while Anacarsis left to pursue theatre in Mexico City and fully embrace his identity as a gay man. Now, in Mi madre y el dinero, they explore Josefina’s long relationship with money, blending economic reflection with theatrical fiction. First, they revisit Josefina’s many jobs, revealing her sales techniques as a microcosm of her unconscious acting in daily life. On stage, they stuff sausages; as if filling the scenes with memories.

At the same time, the performance becomes a continuous investigation of theatre itself: Ramos mocks Europeans’ appetite for documentary theatre and the importance given to having his mother embody herself on stage. Together, they question whether the precarious life of theatre is truly so different from Josefina’s past. The repartition of knowledge—so often tied to class—is reversed when Josefina imagines creating video tutorials for young artists on surviving financial difficulties. Reconstructing moments in their lives with striking simplicity, Mi madre y el dinero delicately reflects on class shame, how work intrudes into family spaces, and the intricate negotiations of telling someone else’s story.