História do Olho
@ KUNSTFESTIVALDESARTS X LES HALLES DE SCHAERBEEK (21-24 May 2026)
Inspired by Georges Bataille's scandalous novella of the same name, theatre maker Janaina Leite explores the relationship between theatre and pornography. The play follows the structure of the book to tell the story of three teenagers and their sexual escapades. Working with the Núcleo do Olho, Leite—one of the most intriguing artists in Brazilian theatre—recreates this dark fable as a magical, at times festive, experience.
In a fairy-tale setting, it shifts between the vulgar and the sublime, the mundane and the cosmic, the ordinary and the abysmal. Twelve performers—professional and amateur, some of them sex workers—take the audience on an intense, three-hour experience, with live music, theatrical storytelling, and live pornographic scenes. Leite and her cast enter into an intimate relationship with Bataille's work, inviting the audience to do the same.
Pornography becomes a theatrical form through which vital and destructive impulses are examined. História do Olho (“Story of the Eye”) explores taboos and questions our relationship with shame and lust, seeking collective insight and consent through performative transgression. Part subversive pornographic fairy tale, part radical adventure, it is a fundamentally tender and connecting piece of theatre that re-educates the gaze.
https://www.halles.be/en/ap/2055-historia-do-olho
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