Medusa is a highly conceptual show by Jasmin Vardimon, which celebrates the twenty years of the Jasmin Vardimon Company. Starting from the ancient myth of Medusa, the Gorgon, whose gaze turned people into stone, Vardimon develops a reflection on modern society, imbalance of power and the faulty dynamics caused by gender disparity. The choreographer decided to focus on the less told section of the ancient Greek myth: the rape by Poseidon, the punishment received by Athena and how Medusa turned into a monster. It is particularly the role of Athena in the show that I found sharp and which captured my interest and sparked many reflections.
Vardimon clearly references Sartre’s Being and Nothingness which uses the myth of Medusa to explain the consciousness of being. Sartre says that it is ‘the gaze of another upon us, and our awareness of that gaze that bring us to realise that we exist as objects for other subjects’. Joshua Smith directly addresses the public with a monologue regarding the subject-object dichotomy. But the choreographer introduces her vision of the ‘gaze’ in the entire show through the constant objectification of women, ultimately turned into dolls at the mercy of the male characters. The show openly and sharply underscores the ‘glass-ceiling’ present in modern society which relegates women to men’s shade like in Patricia Hastewell Puig’s scene with Joshua Smith.
However, as aforementioned, my attention was captured by the female interpreters who, icons of Athena, participate in the torment of other female characters. In multiple scenes Olga Clavel Gimeno in a clear position of power oppresses rather than helps the other female interpreters and similarly, while performing violent acts, male interpreters are backed by their female colleagues. Personally, this detail could alone have made the show sharp and relevant, sparking a reflection on the role of women in shaping a patriarchal society, which hinders their own power. There are however, many different perspectives and attitudes offered on the imbalance of power in society. Extremely moving, by this point of view the scene of the rape of Medusa. Sylke Muye gets attacked, she eventually gets away but spontaneously walks back into the clutch of her aggressors. The scene is completed by the soundtrack Lascia Ch’Io Pianga which contrasts the brutality of the action and encourages a reflection on Muye’s resigned attitude. The song, in fact, says ‘Let me cry my cruel faith and let me miss my freedom’. A similar acceptance is embraced by the woman-tree which stays while being tormented and killed.
Vardimon’s oeuvre can be seen to fit into a green-feminist philosophy. In fact, issues of climate change and pollution flank the aforementioned themes. Climate change is represented by the trash-head man who I personally saw as a personification of denial in related policies pursued by governments. The show offers a dynamic and sudden shift of themes and references from contemporary society to the classical world. As Armando Rotondi (Associate Professor in Performance Theory at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona) affirms, the show does so referencing the dichotomy between stasis and movement theorized by Zygmunt Bauman. In Bauman’s view, modernity is based on the belief that change is the only permanent thing. This philosophy goes well with the dynamic, almost violent physical movement of the performance which characterised Vardimon’s style. Altogether, this show is clever visually and choreographically, backed by a conceptual narrative that hardly leaves indifferent.
- Backbone @ Underbelly Bristo Square - 23rd August 2019
- Goliath in the Water @ Assembly Checkpoint - 22nd August 2019