„The female is deficient and misbegotten... with her excess of moisture and bodily heat that points to corporal and mental deficiency... so to speak, a congenitally anomalous man... The full realization of human nature is only found in a man”.
These statements by St Thomas Acquinas could be used the motto of the crusade launched over two millennia by the Catholic Church against women. The creators of the performance seek out the sources, symptoms and consequences of this continuing, and in Poland, recently intensifying offensive. The story of the possessed and exorcised nuns serves as a pretext for research into the long history of the colonization of the female body, of sexual repression, stigmatization of difference and imposition of rigid gender roles.
Speaking parts in the performance will belong to the Fathers of the Church, Mother Joan and the deveils who lived in her nuns’ bodies and souls. But most of all to contemporary women and men who willy nilly partake in the supposedly defensive culture war fought all over Poland and Europe; a war declared by the Church and by politicians.
What role is written for each of us in this fight? What role do we, consciously or not, accept? To what extent are we forced to uphold patriarchy?
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Performance for adults only.
The performance contains scenes related to sexual behavior and violence, as well as religious themes, which, despite their satirical nature, may be considered as controversial.
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The performance was made for the 4th Art and Community Festival Happy City.
