Irgendwo da oben

Play for ages 8 and up
by Kaya Tina Büttner

One day, her mother was just gone. It came as a complete surprise to eight-year-old Yuna. She didn’t even know her mother had cancer. “And nobody told me. Not Dad, not Grandma… and not Mom either,” says Yuna. 
Yuna doesn’t want to talk to anyone; she sits alone in the schoolyard, brushing everyone off.
But that doesn’t work with Max. He asks. Asks again. He even talks to Jerome, Yuna’s secret imaginary friend. Asks once more.
And so, little by little, he gains Yuna’s trust and learns about her struggles in coping with her loss. Max has something adults don’t: he isn’t afraid of Yuna’s feelings.

The topics of death, the grieving process, and the emotions associated with them remain taboo. Yet the fact that adults may, under certain circumstances, leave children to deal with these issues entirely on their own is often overlooked. With “Irgendwo da oben” (Somewhere Up There), author Kaya Tina Büttner has created a children’s play that is as touching as it is honest and important—one that addresses the themes of grief and the grieving process, but also celebrates the great joy of friendship.