La Medium
In an ironic spiritual session, Marta Cuscunà revokes the “invisible women” of magic and of 19th-century mental asylums. A show that examines the relationship between the female body and patriarchal power, transforming the theatre into a device for symbolic liberation.
Many magic tricks follow a sexist script: men who, to demonstrate their power, use the body of a woman that disappears, either in whole or in part. The new show by Marta Cuscunà seeks to offer those female figures rendered invisible, and all too often made to disappear, new bodies into which they can materialise.
Hersilie Rouy is one of these: an independent woman, a music composer and talented player, as well as the daughter of an illusionist famous for his “invisible woman” act, who would also “disappear” in real life. She ended up being unfairly locked up in a mental asylum on the pretext of her interest in spiritism and animal magnetism. Over fourteen years of imprisonment, Hersilie documented the abuse she suffered, writing a diary-protest in her own blood.
Just over forty years since the Basaglia reform, which called for mental asylums to be closed, the aim of La Medium is to uncover the story of a woman who, way ahead of her time, publicly protested against the abuse suffered in mental asylums.
Duration: the play is currently in production and the duration may vary
