: Onnagata.
„Vulnerability is an important subject for me: the vulnerability of the soul, but also that of the body.”
Sabine Seume
In this 65 minute-long solo inspired by Japanese “Onnagatas“ – the men who play female roles in Japanese Kabuki Theater – Sabine Seume creates a figure of a woman wandering between female, male and childlike energy. Fleeting images from her childhood, youth and adulthood appear. Flashing memories superimpose that which is forgotten, but the effects and tracks of the past remain and forge their own lines in the body’s physical memory. Like a network of arteries or courses of rivers, the landlines run their course and change her over the years.
Her seemingly incoherent life develops and establishes its own order.
With her form of expression, heavily influenced by the Japanese dance form Butoh, Sabine Seume catches hold of indescribable changes of soul related processes. Supported by Martin Schmitz’s subtle lighting concept, she puts together scenes of partly painful, partly satisfying moments of a woman’s life, spilled memories transformed in strange physical images of extreme intensity.
Press (selection):
„...It is startling and fascinating how much this artist dares to switch between seductive tenderness and androgynous aggression…”
Nicole Strecker, Kölnische Rundschau
„...Soothingly erratic and snarling, the beauty is transformed into a hysterical old lady. Magnificent”
Bettina Trouwborst, WZ
Choreography/Dance: Sabine Seume
Stage Set: Radovan Matijek
Lightdesign: Martin Schmitz
Financed by Kunststiftung NRW, Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf and the Ministery for Arbeit, Soziales, Stadtentwicklung, Kultur & Sport des Landes NRW
Premiere in 2000 at Brotfabrik Bonn