Männlich Weiß Hetero

Following the overwhelming success of “Precarious Bodies”, the HAU Theatre am Ufer has been taking on the subject of body politics once again in a two-week theatre festival titled “Männlich Weiß Hetero" (Straight White Men). With eleven productions from the areas of theatre, fine arts, dance, performance and music, the festival featured works which addressed the cultural scientific stereotype of the white, heterosexual male as a representation of inconspicuousness and normality. The theme and title of the festival were based on a production of the same name by the New York director Young Jean Lee. The theatrical language in her works is known to go beyond standard representations of gender, thereby forcing the audience to reflect on their own cultural stereotypes. The Belgian director Luk Perceval and international performers such as Mamela Nyamza, Ana Borralho & João Galante or Thabiso Heccius Pule & Hector Thami Manekehla have expanded on the theme, posing the question of whether we are really witnessing a crisis of the melancholy heterosexual male subject – or whether its tenacity doesn't in fact consist in its very ability to permanently cast doubt on itself and reflect on itself. In his production of Chekhov’s “Platonov”, Luk Perceval wished to explore extreme emotions, the possibilities of expressing them and their social origins. The dance performance by the American choreographer Andros Zins-Browne examined the figure of the cowboy, which continues to be a symbol of Western, white masculinity today. The result was a grotesque requiem to the old heroes who represented pure manliness. “SexyFM” is a performance by the Portuguese artists Ana Borralho & João Galante. The performance featured thirteen actors, casted exclusively for this production, who took to the stage and interacted with the audience. The production aimed to investigate the mechanisms which determine our social identities and define what we regard as “male” and “female”. The discussion programme has been organised in collaboration with Missy Magazine.

Artistic director: curatorial team at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer
Theatre artists: Young Jean Lee (US), Luk Perceval (BE)
Dance artists: Andros Zins-Browne (BE), Marlene Monteiro Freitas (PT) Josep Caballero García
Performance artists: Ana Borralho & João Galante (PT), Zachary Oberzan (US), Thabiso Heccius Pule & Hector Thami Manekehla (ZA), Mamela Nyamza, Frances Stark