“A constant push and pull between high-camp spectacle and vulnerability.”

Unsex Me Here

D: Maria F. Scaroni and Olympia Bukkakis

(Rating: four stars out of five)

For their first performance together as a duo, dancer and choreographer Maria F. Scaroni and drag queen and choreographer Olympia Bukkakis premiered Unsex Me Here at Sophiensæle. The title is drawn from Shakespeare’s Macbeth – specifically, Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy in which she rejects gendered constraints in pursuit of regicide. The performance begins with the entrance of a giant egg, which then initiates a cleansing ritual. Next, it cracks open to reveal a guest performer’s reenactment of an iconic scene from The Witches, wherein the grande dame, played by Anjelica Houston, pulls off her wig to reveal her witchy self. At this point, the witch and queen collapse into one figure, an archetype of feminine power, transformation and threat: themes which are explored throughout the piece. Scaroni and Bukkakis move through a murky, unsettled world of drag detritus and half-formed ritual. Their bodies oscillate between states of becoming and undoing, as if testing what it means to inhabit identity at all. Initially, their movements are crude, almost animalistic, suggesting both construction and erosion of the self. As the work unfolds, the dynamic between the two sharpens. Bukkakis commands the stage in moments of composed lip-sync, while Scaroni fluctuates between control and rupture, wrestling physically with a red dress that seems to resist her. In one standout scene, Scaroni dresses Bukkakis in a corseted gown while speaking Italian. The scene harks back to the roles of handmaiden and noblewoman. In her servitude, Scaroni is hilarious. The work is a constant push and pull between high-camp spectacle and vulnerability. Lady Macbeth’s call to be “unsexed” becomes a frame through which Bukkakis, emboldened by her theatrical armour, speaks on fertility, gender and violence, directly addressing the ongoing genocide in Palestine and Germany’s arms exports. Its delivery is loaded, but toned perfectly. The performance closes with a joint lip-sync to Lady Gaga’s ‘Abracadabra’, which serves as an energetic release, showcasing the duo’s proclamation of using po(m)p to create joy, transcendence and magic.