Ea Torrado: Brown Madonna – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin

Ea Torrado: Brown Madonna

A person stands facing forward on a stage wearing an elaborate costume made of colorful reused materials that drapes over the head like a wide cloak. The dress is decorated with fruit motifs, patterns, and bold jewelry, including a large heart-shaped necklace. The person holds a doll in one hand. Behind them, strings of bunting hang while blue stage light shines from above through light haze.
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Coincidence or fate? Choreographer Ea Torrado not only shares her birthday with American pop icon Madonna – their biographies also show striking parallels: first steps in classical ballet and modern dance, a strict Catholic upbringing, the constant struggle for self-determination.

In the solo Brown Madonna, she takes this closeness – and difference – to Madonna as the starting point for a living ethnography. Against the backdrop of the intertwined forces of colonialism, Catholic iconography and global pop culture, Torrado interrogates the ways women in Philippine society are conditioned to be spectacular givers: mothers, martyrs, entertainers, saints. Together with visual artist and fashion designer Leeroy New, she creates a playful DIY spectacle as a radical search for liberation through embodiment. She addresses the constant work of upholding an idealized self, the overperformance, the dream of making money with one’s own art – and the fatigue, financial precarity, and loneliness that come with it.

Evening information

Ticket
Ticket

The performance addresses (neo)colonial and capitalist exploitation and oppression.

The information on accessibility is still in progress and will be updated as soon as possible. If any questions remain unanswered until then, please feel free to contact the communication department at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).

Duration

  • approx. 70 minutes without intermission

Language

  • Spoken English and Filipino
  • Leaflets in written English will be distributed

Light

  • Use of flashing lights
  • Rotating light effects
  • Alternating bright and dark lighting
  • Blinding light at one moment

Sound

  • Loud music is played toward the end of the performance
  • Rapid changes between sound elements
  • Panicked screaming at one moment

Other

  • Haze is used

Interaction

  • The performer offers the audience snacks and baskets.

Audience

  • Seated grandstand
  • 2 beanbag seats bookable according to availability
  • 2 wheelchair spaces bookable according to availability

Early boarding

There is the option of Early boarding. A loudspeaker announcement will draw attention to it

Tickets

  • Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
  • Via the online ticket shop
  • At the box office

You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.

Concept, performance, direction: Ea Torrado
Costume design: Leeroy New
Collaboration Costume Design: Arvie Santos
Dramaturgy: Eisa Jocson
Dramaturgical support: Alexandra Hennig, Daniel Darwin, Perky Parong
Sound design: Joshua Gramaje
Rehearsal mistresses: Julienne Depatillo, Freyja Kapangyarihan
Production management: Micah Sofia Pinto
Thanks to: Jodinand Aguilon, Joee Mejias, Tokio, Cordelia Hattori, Irene Antonia Patolot Ta-asan

A production by Ea Torrado. Brown Madonna premiered as part of Sincerely Yours, the Philippines, a project by Künstler*innenhaus Mousontourm in cooperation with the Goethe Institut Philippines. Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation through the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. With support from the Japan Foundation Manila, UP Vargas Museum, Daloy Dance Company, We Are Shapeshifters and MUNI Philippines. The guest performance is made possible by the Goethe Institute. Never Work – International Performance Festival is a festival by Sophiensæle, supported by the Capital Cultural Fund (HKF). Sophiensæle is supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.

Ea Torrado is a queer contemporary choreographer, performer and educator. Her work delves into the intersections of identity, eroticism, spirituality ecological consciousness and cultural memory, often blurring boundaries between dance theater, ritual performance, community practice and experimental film. As founder of Daloy Dance Company and creator of Daloy Movement, she continues to forge spaces for embodied resistance, healing and radical joy locally and internationally.

Ea Torrado zeigt ein Solo über ihr Leben und ihre Nähe zu Pop-Sängerin Madonna. Sie fragt, wie Frauen auf den Philippinen geprägt werden – durch Religion, Kolonialismus und Popkultur. Frauen sollen oft geben und stark sein. Das Stück zeigt auch Belastung, Arbeit, Geldsorgen und den Wunsch, frei zu sein.

  • A person stands elevated on a stage wearing a voluminous dress made from recycled materials that spreads out in a bell shape. The person holds a bag and a doll, with strings of bunting stretched behind them. Various objects lie scattered on the stage floor in the foreground, while the lighting focuses on the person and leaves the surrounding space mostly dark.
    © Noi Crew
  • A person in a colorful stage costume assembled from many materials holds a microphone and raises one arm. The costume is made of layered elements and decorated with small objects and packaging, also attached to two hanging mobile structures on either side. The scene is lit by warm stage lighting while the background remains dark.
    © Noi Crew