Endless Medication
2002 (English version 2005)
Theatre performance
Credits
Text: Marijs Boulogne and Manah Depauw (2002)
Performed by: Marijs Boulogne & Sara De Bosschere (2005)
Technical production: Tom De Roy
Production: Buelens Paulina vzw
Background
Endless Medication is a theatre performance created in 2001 by the Flemish performance artist Marijs Boulogne in collaboration with Manah Depauw. Currently Endless Medication is performed by the Flemish actress Sara De Bosschere (De Roovers collective).
The Dutch-language version of Endless Medication was directed by Marijs Boulogne as graduation project at RITS School of ARTS in Brussels in 2001.
The French-language version with Marijs Boulogne and Manah Depauw has been first time performed at the Noria festival and at L'An Vert in Liège. In May 3003 performance has been re-written and finalised for KunstenFESTIVALdesArts in Brussels.
The English-language version was rewritten by Marijs Boulogne and first time performed by Marijs Boulogne and Sara De Bosschere at the International Festival of Contemporary Arts – City of Women in Ljubljana, Slovenia in October 2005.
The Slovene language adaptation of Endless Medication entitled Večna medikacija was directed by Simona Semenič and Marijs Boulogne and performed by Slovene actresses Barbara Krajnc and Jelena Rusjan. In production of City of Women Association, the performance premiered in May 2006 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
In 2007 the Slovene language adaptation of Endless Medication was translated and adapted for Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian speaking region.
About
Endless Medication tells the story of Rosa, a girl who cannot weep. She is made pregnant by the JesusChristMachine - possibly a reference to Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine - and is soon to give birth - through her intestines - to God’s grandson. God appears in the form of a talking bulb and the pregnancy takes on the form of a watermelon growing under Rosa’s skirt. Because the child is developing in Rosa’s intestines it encumbers her metabolism: the watermelon must be cut/aborted. With God’s help Rosa finally gives birth (from her leg) to a little boy who never cries. The story ends with Rosa’s incarceration in a madhouse, an infanticide, and a trial in which Rosa is condemned to endless medication.
The performance is realised in the basic inventive style of fairground theatre. Marijs Boulogne treats the tricks of theatre in a childlike, lucid, but also perverse manner. A scatological potence is hidden behind the apparent innocence of these two energetic, jolly, carefree girls. As a result of its subject - the conception and birth of the grandson of God, as well as the unforced, self-evident way in which they handle obscenity and violence, engenders a form of religiously-tinted pornography.The name of the girl - Rosa - derives from the Saint Rosa of Lima (1586-1617), and similarly to the experiences of many female mystics from that period, religious ecstasy all too easily turns into highly sexually charged delirium. The sacral and blasphemous go hand in hand. As with Boulogne’s later projects, Endless Medication is dominated by a radical, female corporality with particular focus on the interior of the body. Rather than the breasts or the belly she is interested in the cunt and the intestines, shit, menstruation and bodily fluids in general. The disorder that Rosa’s pregnancy causes her body finds its antithesis in the chaos, filth and dirt left behind on the stage at the end of the performance. At the same time this work can also be seen within the context of Flemish historical sensibilities re the grotesque, the macabre and the vital. (Marianne Van Kerkhoven)
Awards
In 2002, Marijs Boulogne became a 'laureat' for 'Theater aan Zee', in Oostende, with the performance of Endless Medication, which is the biggest price for a young director in Flanders, with a 2 years residency attached from art center STUK.
In 2003 the Endless Medication text got Belgian SACD price for best Dutch text of the year. Same year Endless Medication was selected as one of 8 best Dutch language performances of the year for the Theaterfestival in Amsterdam and Antwerp.
In 2009, V(j)ečna Medikacija, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language adaptation of Endless Medication won first award as the bravest and most innovative project of International Festival PATOSOFIRANJE in Smederevo, Serbia.
Touring
Endless Medication
(Dutch, French, Italian, English language version):
7 December 2013 - Theater Malpertuis Tielt, Belgium
28-30 January 2009 - Lille scene, Black Box Teater, Oslo, Norway
27 January 2009 - Lille scene, Black Box Teater, Oslo, Norway
13, 14 September 2008 - BIT Teatergarasjen Studio USF – Bergen, Norway
10, 11 September 2008 - Teaterhuset Avant Garden, Trondheim, Norway
7 June 2008 – Vaglebruket (Teater NOR) - Stamsund International Theatre, Stamsund, Norway
11- 14 March 2008 - Lille scene, Black Box Teater, Oslo, Norwegian premiere
18 Nov 2006 - Kaaistudio's, Brussels, Belgium
19 March 2006 - Edgy Women Festival, Studio 303, Montréal, Canadian premiere
20, 21, 22 November 2005 - KC nOna, Mechelen, Belgium
10 October 2005 - City of Women Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia - Slovene premiere in English language with Sarah De Bosschere
12, 13 May 2005 - Cultuurcentrum de Werft, Geel, Belgium
20 March 2005 - Scène Nationale de Dieppe, Dieppe, France
18 March 2005 - Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France
27, 28 January 2005 – Théo Argence Centre, Saint Priest, France
8 December 2004 - CC Maasmechelen, Maasmechelen (Eisden-Tuinwijk), Belgium
2-5, 7-11 July 2004 - Santarcangelo dei teatri, Rimini, Italy - Premiere in Italian language
2, 3 April 2004 – La vivat, Armentières, France
24, 25 March 2004 - Théâtre Granit, Belfort, France
6 February 2004 - Theatre de Galafronie, Brussels, Belgum
22, 23 January 2004 - Plaza Futura, Eindhoven, Netherlands
13-15 November 2003 - Théâtre National de Bretagne (TNB), Rennes, France - French premiere
7-9 September 2003 - Amsterdam Theaterfestival, Amsterdam, Netherlands
28-31 August 2003 - Antwerpen Theaterfestival (Dutch Version)
7-10 May 2003 - Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels, Belgium – Premiere in French language
4 April 2003 - Kunstencentrum Belgie, Hasselt, Belgium
29 March 2003 - Berchem, Antwerp, Belgum
21 March 2003 - Limelight Festival, Kortrijk, Belgium
7 February 2003 - Gasthuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
19 December 2002 - Kunstencentrum TOR, Genk, Belgium
29, 30 December 2002 - Nieuwpoorttheater, Ghent, Belgium
20 November 2002 - Porn around the World festival, KC nOna, Mechelen, Belgium
2 November 2002 - Bronks Festival, Brussels, Belgium
1 September 2002 - Cultuurmarkt, Antwerpen, Belgium
24-27 July 2002 - Festival Theater aan Zee, Oostende, Belgium
9 May 2002 - Voix Gras theatre festival, Leuven performing arts centre STUK, Leuven, Belgium
24-27 January 2002 - Stokerij (KVS/De Bottelarij), Brussels, Belgium - RITS Premiere in Dutch language
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