Change Me

According to

Ovide, Isaac de Benserade et la vie de Brandon Teena

Direction

Camille Bernon, Simon Bourgade

Performed by

Camille Bernon, Pauline Bolcatto, Pauline Briand, Baptiste Chabauty, Mathieu Metral

Interweaving mythological figures, 17th century theatre and an event from the 1990s, Change Me explores the issue of transidentity. Staged as a thriller, the play draws the audience into a teenage party that ends in tragedy.

As recounted by Ovid in Metamorphoses and taken up by Isaac de Benserade in the 17th century, the myth of Iphis and Ianthe sheds light on the fate of a baby girl secretly brought up as a boy by his mother to save her from being killed. Having reached marriageable age, Iphis is promised to Ianthe, whom she loves and is loved in return. Deciding to come to the aid of the two young people due to marry, the goddess Isis transforms Iphis into a young man, giving free rein to their passion.
In Change Me, Camille Bernon and Simon Bourgade contrast the verses of Ovid and Isaac de Benserade with a tragic event that occurred in the United States in the early 1990s, namely the rape and murder of a young transgender man by his friends following the discovery of his birth gender. Through this kaleidoscope performance presented as a thriller, the two co-directors create a myth for our modern times.
In societies that have always censored, denied and marginalized transgender individuals, they show how history repeats itself and reveals itself – whatever the era – in all its violence.