20
Mar
A multimedia performance in which performer Marleen Hendrickx brings the 19th-century French intersex person Herculine Barbin to life through dance, projection, and light-hearted play.
Enfin, Barbin.
About the Performance
The starting point for Finally, Barbin. is the memoir of the 19th-century French intersex person Herculine Barbin, in which she describes how, after a hidden relationship with a female colleague, she is legally declared a man. The philosopher Michel Foucault found her memoirs more than a century later and published them along with Herculine's medical reports, a romanticized version of her story by the German psychiatrist Oskar Panizza, and his own reflections. Thus, three men mercilessly impose their voices on Herculine.
With Finally, Barbin., Marleen Hendrickx returns control of the story to its rightful owner. Finally, Herculine gets to speak for herself. In a single movement, Marleen switches from herself to Herculine, to the German Oskar Panizza, and the French Foucault. A glitter beard and mustache cling to her body as if their male gaze cannot be completely washed away. At the same time, the performance references contemporary drag culture. In this way, Marleen gives Herculine what she herself has received in recent years after coming out as intersex: love, a queer family, and applause. But above all: the right to celebrate yourself when the world sees you as a problem.
"Personal experiences are convincingly linked to historical and societal themes. The relevance of the chosen topics, from Barbin's memoirs to intersexuality today, is undeniable."
– from the advice of the Performing Arts Fund NL
Het Nationale Theater
De Constant Rebecqueplein 20-A, The Hague, Netherlands
Queer Places Nearby
Upcoming
De Constant Rebecqueplein 20-A, The Hague, Netherlands
Queer Places Nearby
Brouwerij De Prael Den Haag
Bar in Den Haag
Bar in Den Haag
Café Happy End
Bar in Den Haag
Bar in Den Haag
Bij Hem
Bar in Den Haag
Bar in Den Haag
Upcoming