ARCHIVES 2010 / Gardenia

There are nine of them, nine surprising performers, most of them over 60 years old. On stage, these bodies that move, alone or together, create real emotions, joyful or melancholic. "The subject is hope," explains Vanessa Van Durme, the great Flemish actress whose involvement is at the show's origin. "We continue to hope when we're old and we hope better and better, stronger and stronger..." Hope, lost and maintained illusions, the individuals who compose the atypical cast of Gardenia know very well. They are all, or almost all, former transvestites. They were artists, civil servants, clerks, farmers and are now young retirees, full of energy but slightly rusty. They remember their existences, family ties, loves stories, others' views of them, explosions caused by their choice of changing their gender and identity. They recall the fight to lead their own lives and the incredibly high price they had to pay. They dance all of this, they sing it, in detail or as an overview, with a conviction that borders on passion. They share the stage, swinging between the know-how of professionals and the awkwardness of amateurs, but with a sincerity, a courage, a valour, occasionally a lightness that give this show profound authenticity. Alain Patel gives Gardenia a finished collective form, while Frank Van Laecke contributes his musical and festive touch. And when the old bodies come and go, between masculine and feminine, between laughter and anxiety, between past and present, we begin to believe that skin has a memory. ADB