after the novel of the same name by Nelly Arcan

With: Catharina Boutari, Lea Fresenius, Marie Kristin Peters, Irini Doulgere, Annette Lober, Nükkhet Wieben, Gesa Boysen, Janina Elkin, Martina Brümmer, Ivana Martinovic, and others, stage + direction: Isabelle McEwen, vocals + music: Catharina Boutari, video: Michael Steinhauser, costumes:Isabelle McEwen, Irène Favre de Lucascaz, Ariane Gaertner

Premiere: 08.12.2005 at the Hamburger Sprechwerk

[...] In her dramatization of Nelly Arcan's "whore", Isabelle McEwen sets the focus differently from the bestselling model: not on long-winded rags with individual family causes. Instead, beyond all injuries to her protagonist, she works out her infinite, indestructible longing for the primal feeling of tender love. And the longer, the more often and the rougher the everyday life of the sex business mechanically repeats itself, the more noticeably it becomes. In the detection of such buried feelings, in the exposure not only of the exterior but also of the deepest layers of the soul, this staging reaches its greatest intensity. She exposes the mental self-protection rituals of the whore and her self-deception as well as those of the pathetically blunt suitors. The perfectly applied integration of dance, spoken word, video sequences and rock music - always supported by the fascinating charisma of Lea Fresenius and the musical one-woman power plant Catharina Boutari - makes the irreconcilable juxtaposition of illusions, longings and bitter reality tangible with eyes and hands and turns this evening into a theatrical event that captivates and lingers for a long time.

Hans-Jürgen Fink (Hamburger Abendblatt)

Scene excerpt 1: click here

Scene detail 2: click here

Scene detail 3: click here