P.L.U.G.

The show

Once acquaintance has been gained with the all in all pretty elementary mysteries of the mechanics of homo sapiens’s mating, it is not unreasonable to imagine that the achievement of this finality is limited only by the imagination – so long as the flesh is willing.

Such is the basic idea to have emerged from the exploratory work undertaken in March 2007 on the premiere, presented by Michele Anne De Mey as part of the Charleroi/Danses Biennial. If she has got a handle on the various postures of the Kamasutra as so far investigated (“A gets down on all four, and B kneels and penetrates A”), one could say it is a handle that winds her up to unsuspected heigts. For, over and above the particular and only too human examples, the generic question of the production has become : is not everything a matter of interlocking, coupling, introduction, intromission, assembly, as would seem to be indicated by, among other things, the image of the “male” plug and “female” socket, the tenon and mortice, or even, in their very principle, the piston, the slide trombone, and – in a more bucolic sense – golf ?
If this tome is taken, strait is the gate between pornography and bawdiness, but be reassured, a boulevard opens up: the approach is mot definitely that of the instructions for use, of practical demonstration, the tone is playful, light; a detached irony pervades this libertine yet mechanistic exploration, including within its world the very objects of the scenography: the flesh is weak but the furniture is hard…