Weiblicher Akt 6 - Vanuit lokaste

We women

The French philosopher René Girard believes that our actions never come directly from ourselves, but are always influenced by the prevalent models found in different cultures. Maatschappij Discordia takes a look at the Oedipus myth from the perspective of Oedipus’ mother, Jocasta. In response to the Oracle of Delphi, who had prophesised that the child would murder his father, she left her son behind in a wood with his feet pierced.

According to the myth, Oedipus is the man who murdered his father and slept with his mother. Freud considers Oedipus to be a perpetrator, but Girard regards him as a victim. Which model influenced Jocasta’s actions? What led her, as a woman of that time, to make such a gruesome decision? What are the models influencing women in our time? And who can guarantee to us that the person we load up with sins and send away, the ‘scapegoat’ who would once have been sent into the desert, won’t simply make an about turn 100 metres further on and go on to have a great life in a nearby village? Or that he won’t come back to avenge himself?

Weiblicher Akt is a series of productions by Maatschappij Discordia from a female perspective. As well as texts by Girard and Freud, this performance uses material by Susan Sontag, Martha Graham, Shakespeare, Marguerite Yourcenar and Elfride Jelinek.

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