SEXODUS

Naomi Velissariou / Theater Utrecht / URLAND / Nicole Beutler Projects / O.

”AS LONG AS I LIVE, I WILL BE AGING. MY ONLY OTHER OPTION IS TO DIE”

In SEXODUS, we see an actress at the threshold of her forties. She knows that in the Western world, she is expected to keep looking like a twenty-four-year-old until she’s far into her sixties. So, she adapts. Again. And again. Her body is marked by centuries of aesthetic oppression.What starts as compliance turns into resistance. In an exhilarating revenge fantasy, she takes the weapons of the arts, the entertainment industry and social media into her own hands. Through fashion, live video and music, she challenges a global system that thrives on female insecurity, hoping to get a glimpse of what lies beyond. SEXODUS offers an honest look into the female mind and shows how a woman’s body is being shaped, used and reclaimed.

“How I get through the next 90 minutes defines who I’m going to be for the rest of my life.”

SEXODUS is a physical rollercoaster in which Naomi Velissarious hapeshifts into a storm of female archetypes, under the meticulous direction of Nicole Beutler. The uncompromising language of Bregje Hofstede and Naomi Velissariou is carried by the crafty sound and sharp imagery of performance collective URLAND, which plays with references to pop culture, history and the arts. All this is amplified by the daring costume design of artist Ülkühan Akgül. This teamwork results in a one-woman show that is as multifaceted as woman herself.

English spoken.

Trigger warning: This performance contains strobe lighting and explicit nudity. It explores themes of body image, self-criticism, and distorted body perception.