Enfin, Barbin

Enfin, Barbin. is a multimedia performance in which physical performer Marleen Hendrickx brings 19th-century French intersex Herculine Barbin to life. With dance, projection and nimble acting, Marleen frees Herculine's experiences from compulsive attempts to categorise them as male or female. And in doing so, she also liberates herself.

Starting point for Enfin, Barbin. is Barbin's book, the only surviving experience story of an intersex person in Western Europe. In her memoir, she describes how she was legally declared a man after a hidden relationship with a female colleague. The philosopher Michel Foucault found her memoir over a century later and published it together with Barbin's doctor's reports, a romanticised version of her story by German psychiatrist Oskar Panizza and Foucault's own reflection. In this form, the book gained some notoriety, leading three men to mercilessly impose their voices on Herculine.

With music, dance, live video and a voice shaper, Marleen puts control back in the hands of its rightful owner. Alternating between transparently self-deprecating and "bold" characters, Marleen Herculine conveys the queer joy she herself found after coming out as an intersex person. Joy as protest, as an antidote to medical normalisation and social invisibility.

Finally, Barbin. is a sequel to Marleen's solo X Y I. Theaterkrant gave that show the 'Critic's Choice' designation. Dagblad van het Noorden spoke of a "top performance - light-hearted and impressive".

Moreover, as the only intersex theatre maker in the Netherlands, Marleen brings a story that is new, enlightening and confronting for many people and which contributes to awareness, empathy and a change in policy and culture.

Make your Monday! This show is part of the Make your Monday! series. Every first Monday of the month, we put on a brand new programme by an emerging artist, in collaboration with Theatre De Garage. As many as seven next season. Tickets are 15 euros a night, but do you really go all-out and order the whole series? Then it only costs a tenner! We would say: make your Monday! And come and enjoy the latest creators, in the intimate and cosy atmosphere of Theatre De Garage. Order the series here!

Conditions No discounts are valid with this show.