Helena lays out the ingredients on the counter and gets to work: preparing a last meal for Bert. She has chosen to make him clay pot chicken with spices, à la Mother Courage. So begins this monologue interpreted by Maria João Luís, written by António Cabrita and directed by António Pires. While she cooks, Helena talks about her life with Bert: the great joys of sharing a transcendent theatrical dream and of trusting each other unconditionally on stage, in a harmony that led them to success, and on the other hand the suffering with marital betrayals, Brecht’s character of “lover boy” and his extended notion of “family”; the harshness of life in exile; the difficult return to Berlin and her role as “mother” to keep Bert in the right balance for his creative needs. Bert is already in his coffin, but she was left to answer to Death the next morning, to replace him or not, in which case Death would resurrect him. In desperation, she decided to make the dish Bert liked best and considered worthy of resurrecting a dead man – maybe then she won’t have to sacrifice herself, she thinks.