MISTERMISSMISSMISTER, 2002

The Guardian, Lyn Gardner - 11 May 2011 - UK
5x5 (Loud and Clear) – review The Basement, Brighton festival

Not all the artists taking part in this performance require balls, but the audience does. Part of the Brighton festival, 5x5 is a series of brief performance encounters experienced over an hour in the company of five other people... Nothing is said at all in Mistermissmissmister, a nakedly confrontational gender-bending encounter on a sofa, in which a soundtrack of soppy hits and come-hither eyes are full of such confusing ambiguities that you don't know where to look – and yet keep being drawn back to look again.
One-on-one theatrical encounters are now pretty mainstream, but experiencing the pieces in a small group adds an extra layer as your fellow travellers reveal a great deal about themselves, almost creating a sixth piece. We are part of the performance...


Mistermissmissmister is a performative project based on the erotic imaginary. Questioning the asymmetries that regulate the social identities and the definitions of male/female, Mistermissmissmister means to cause strong emotions in the viewer by confronting him/her with characters whose bodies are extremely exposed and that show a very obvious gender/sexual ambiguity. The threeperformers (two men and a woman) are totally naked and their heads transformed through characterization and make-up so that each one has a different gender from the body he or she belongs to.

Performance for 3 viewers at each time: sitting face to face to the 3 performers, the public establishes a very intimate (almost loving) and direct relationship with the performers (eye to eye), with no words and for an undetermined period, while they listen, repeatedly, to a love song with headphones (each viewer listens to his own song). It is the viewer who defines the time of the performance, the kind of relationship (by choosing a certain performer) and the moment he/she gets up and cuts off the dynamics, leaving place to another viewer. All other viewers are put waiting for a sit on the sofa, and, as in a voyeuristic game, they are free to watch the performance and the relationships established by others from the outside, choosing to later participate in the performance or not.

concept and artistic direction Ana Borralho & João Galante
performers Ana Borralho, João Galante, Miguel Moreira (or in substitution Bruno Simão or Carolina Hoffs)
make-up artist Jorge Bragada
co-production Centro Cultural de Belém, Eira, wid.lov, casaBranca
thanks alkantara, Cristina Piedade, David Gueniot, Eira, Filipa Francisco, Helena Batista, Miguel Abreu, Olho, Patricia Leal, Rui Viana, João Garcia Miguel and Vítor Rua

performance duration 2 to 3 hours.