Holland Festival: Janaina Leite (BR) - Stabat Mater

Medieval poem about the Virgin Mary

Inspired by a philosophical essay by Julia Kristeva, Stabat Mater refers to the medieval poem about the Virgin Mary, literally the 'mother who stands', the mother who is always there, at the feet of her crucified son. This woman who came into the world 'without pleasure and without sin', who was impregnated while she slept, becomes the prototype on which the Western world grafts its image of femininity, in the tension between whore and saint, between self-denial and masochism.

The performance takes the form of a lecture-performance, but plays inventively with theatricality and alternative spaces. The lectern becomes a church altar, the stage turns into a nightclub, with pole dancing and a huge phallus. Using the biblical motif as a starting point, Leite evokes female models, such as her own mother. In this space, which can be both womb and grave, Leite peels away the historical order between male and female down to the bone.

'I can only say about Stabat Mater that no one will be left untouched by it. It is the most daring piece in São Paulo's current season. (..) A powerful exercise about traumas and taboos about women, which are still persistent in the 21st century.'

- Ivana Moura, theater critic