SARAH VANHEE | MÉMÉ

The Ties That Bind

An endless cycle of giving birth, nursing and feeding the children, plowing the land, praying… That was life for many of our grandmothers, toiling as invisible labourers until their bodies were worn out. To liberate them from this burden, Belgian writer and performer Sarah Vanhee summons the spirits of her maternal ancestors for a final encounter: an intimate conversation that’s both necessary and celebratory.

Ghosts appear where there is suffering that needs to be heard and named. Alone on a stage inhabited by voices, Vanhee is joined by spectral apparitions, shadow images, and the words of children, imagined in collaboration with puppeteer Toztli Abril de Dios and sound artist Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti. Linking the female body, the domestic world, and her ancestral land, the play is an ode to matriarchal relationships. "Mémé," which sounds like m’aimer (“to love me”) when spoken aloud, also gently encourages us to rediscover our capacity to care for others as for ourselves.