A feminist mass on roller skates
Florentina Holzinger is one of the most exciting theatre makers of the moment. Her trademark: groundbreaking performances with a strong show component that shed a feminist light on canonical works and social norms. In SANCTA she tackles the opera genre. She starts from Paul Hindemith's Sancta Susanna from 1922, a scandalous piece about a nun who cannot hide her sexuality while praying and is punished for it. Holzinger combines the opera with liturgical music, pop and metal, and thus arrives at a radically new 'mass celebration', in which she and her performers reclaim and redefine the pain, shame and guilt that women in the Catholic tradition have suffered. SANCTA is a theatrical statement about spiritual and sexual liberation, about female power and connectedness. Above all, the performance is an ecstatic celebration in which conventions may be thrown overboard – and nuns may sing happily on roller skates.
Take the OBV bus from Ghent
This performance contains nudity and depicts explicit sexual acts as well as representations and descriptions of (sexual) violence. It also features real blood and stage blood, piercing processes, and the infliction of wounds. The performance includes strobe effects, high volume, and incense. Read more about our content warnings here.
With the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government.
The creators
Team
Marit Strindlund
Conductor
Florentina Holzinger
Staging and choreography
Nikola Knežević
Scenography and costume design
Stefan Schneider
Sound design
Cast
Cornelia Zink
Susanna
Andrea Baker
Klementia
Emma Rothmann
Alte Nonne
Annina Machaz
Performance
