“Unparalleled tour de force of the queer body” – Annette Embrechts; critic's choice in the Theaterkrant
“Batty Bwoy”, literally “butt boy”, is Jamaican slang for a queer person. In this performance, Harald Beharie explores how blackness and queerness are perceived. He attacks and embraces sedimented narratives around the fear of the queer body as a perverse and deviant figure. He does this by using his own nude body in an expressive way.
The work twists and turns cruel myths to unfold vulnerable possibilities in an interplay of consciousness and naivety. Both the horror and joy of Batty Bwoy are unmasked. Batty Bwoy focuses on bodies and languages, on how we take in and reject the fictions projected onto our skin.
Batty Bwoy is an extremely intensive theatrical experience, in which Beharie collects topics of his current research – the fear of the queer body in public space, his non-white personal heritage in a predominantly white society, the borders of proximity between performer and audience, the limits of performer body exhaustion, but also the liberated power and joy coming through and by the body. With the original music of the Norwegian rock band Ring van Möbius it is a manifestation of pride and power over the oppression of “normativity”.
The work has found inspiration in mythologies, disgusting stereotypes, feelings and fantasies of the queer body and identities, homophobic dancehall lyrics and 70s Giallo films from Italy. Furthermore, it is inspired by resilient “gully queens” and voices of the Jamaican and Norwegian queer community who have contributed to the process of this solo creation. The performance is an endless celebration of freedom of the queer body, as well as a provocation to the audience – an invitation to be confronted with prejudices with a manifestation of sensuality and sexuality. In the Topic Talk black body – white gaze, Harald will further discuss the use of the black body on stage.
Batty Bwoy earned Harald a nomination for the Norwegian Critics Association prize.