Theatre maker honours grandmothers
In Mémé, Sarah Vanhee questions our relationship with our ancestors, with the (native) soil, and with the female body. On stage, Vanhee is joined by puppets, ghosts and a child. The ghosts are of both her West Flemish grandmothers who dedicated their lives to ‘labour’ in both senses of the word – giving birth and raising children as well as working in the home and ‘in the fields’.
How does today’s world relate to those forgotten female ancestors and to the soil they cultivated? How do we see them reflected in today’s forgotten women, whose labour is still being exploited?
Mémé is a layered and multilingual ode to those ‘invisible’ women, to Mother Earth and to life itself. It is Vanhee’s ritual attempt to bring her grandmothers back to life, to re-connect with them, and then – this time differently – to say goodbye, unbounded by time.
Combine ‘Mémé’ on Friday 7 July with ‘Love’ by Florin Flueras and ‘Have a Safe Travel’ by Eli Mathieu-Bustos.
Play dates
concept, text & performance Sarah Vanhee
objects & scenography Toztli Abril de Dios
sound Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti
outside eye Christine De Smedt
technicGeeraard Respeel & Babette Poncelet
performance on screen Leander Polzer Vanhee
with the input of family Vanhee-Deseure
production CAMPO
co-production Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussel), Kaaitheater (Brussel), Wiener Festwochen (Wenen), BUDA (Kortrijk), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlijn), De Grote Post (Oostende), Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris), Festival d’Automne à Paris & Perpodium
residencies KWP Kunstenwerkplaats (Brussel), Kaaitheater (Brussel) & BUDA (Kortrijk)
met de steun van de taxshelter van de Belgische Federale Overheid via uFund