Up your Ass

Nona Demey Gallagher & Lieselot Siddiki adapt Up Your Ass, Valerie Solanas' infamous 1965 comedy. The text has had a controversial status in the feminist (queer) community for years, but is now seeing the European theatre light for the first time.

New York, the Sixties. Main character Bongi Perez – a substitute for Solanas herself – is a crude hustler and sex worker. She hangs out on the streets with quite a few eccentric characters, where she fills her days with vulgar discourses, clapping and wooing female passers-by. When she meets Ginger and Russel – a daddy's girl and a male narcissist – a chain of absurd (anti-)intellectual discussions about the state of society immediately ensues. Bongi, Ginger and Russel shamelessly spit their beliefs at each other – resulting in unthinkable and grotesque situations.

Valerie Solanas is best known today for her attack on Andy Warhol, but her literary legacy includes important radical-feminist works, such as SCUM Manifesto and Up Your Ass. After Andy Warhol refused to produce Up Your Ass, Solanas tried to shoot him. Nona and Lieselot got in close contact with Solanas' last living relative and were the first and only ones to get permission to perform Up Your Ass.

Performers Sophia Bauer, Bavo Buys, Lucie Plasschaert and Lucas Van Der Vegt fulminate Solanas' words from the 1960s to a rhythm that, at times, is quite similar to today's.

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by Nona Demey Gallagher en Lieselot Siddiki with Lucas Van Der Vegt, Lucie Plasschaert, Bavo Buys, Sophia Bauer technic Kato Stevens costumes Lieselot Siddiki scenography Eva Demulder music Bart Demey en Tania Gallagher production Detheatermaker, Campo, Kunstenwerkplaats vzw, De Grote Post, C-Mine, Gouvernement en Sabam For Culture photo Lieselot Siddiki