Concept & direction: Cherish Menzo / Creation & performance: Cherish Menzo, Malick Cissé, Mulunesh, Omagbitse Omagbemi / Sound design: Maria Muehombo a.k.a M I M I / Video design: Andrea Casetti / Sound and video engineering: Arthur De Vuyst / Set design: Morgana Machado Marques / Lighting design: Ryoya Fudetani / Dramaturgy: Johanne Affricot, Renée Copraij / Costumes: Cherish Menzo / Text: Khadija El Kharraz Alami, Cherish Menzo / Artistic advice: Khadija El Kharraz Alami, Nicole Geertruida / Technician on tour: Pieter-Jan Buelens, Arthur De Vuyst, Ryoya Fudetani, Hadrien Jeangette / Graphic design: Nick Mattan
Cherish Menzo
FRANK
- Performance
- Dance
In “FRANK”, Cherish Menzo explores the monster as a mirror of societal fears and desires. Blurring the lines between ritual, horror, carnival and decay, a physical performance emerges, characterised by distortion and resistance – a dance in a world spiralling out of control.
“We are in an alien world. Only awkward movement is possible.” (Bayo Akomolafe)
Choreographer Cherish Menzo examines the figure of the monster in “FRANK” —short for Frankenstein. More than (re)producing a physical or visual portrayal of the monster, she is researching the monstrous as an embodiment of beliefs and narratives that terrify and horrify, and yet also attract us. Distortion is a choreographic leitmotif used to generate movement material and as a tool to devour the dance and loosen its structure. Cherish Menzo investigates the action of decay and how something gradually breaking down and becoming less or worse can affect one’s gestures.
The performance space fabulates on the Baka Gorong, a place located at the back of the former plantations and in front of the wetlands, where enslaved people in South American Suriname secretly went to carry out Winti rituals – demonized under Dutch colonial rule – and to consider fleeing.
Cherish Menzo is joined by Omagbitse Omagbemi, Mulunesh and Malick Cissé – artists from different generations. Together they construct a performance between the ritual, the apocalypse, and the carnival, where narrated identities are challenged, where flesh can deviate and be corrupted until it bursts and becomes unbearable. The dancers express their standing in the world with incoherent, broken-down movement in a scenery that collapses around them. In an increasingly unstable world of hiccups and unlikely events, often gruesome and violent, we are reminded of early horror movies and this eerie feeling, the flicker in the dark.
If we can understand the monster, won’t we also understand the people who invented it? In their respective times and narratives, historical eras and social constructions?
All performance texts, (audio-)visual material, and more infos about ›FRANK‹ in English, French and Dutch can be found on this website: enterfrank
Press reviews:
“Cherish Menzo has breathed new life into the world of dance in recent years. Her production FRANK, the final instalment of a trilogy exploring the Black body and colonial legacy, is a physical exploration of the monstrous.” Het Parool (2025)
“Menzo’s courage makes her reimaginings of rituals, access, complicity and freedom irresistible.” Theaterkrant on FRANK (2025)
“Menzo is a bold performer, she’s got nerve, she’s got a very still steeliness about her and she’s got important things to say.” Lyndsey Winship, The Guardian (2022)
“Although Menzo’s works are decidedly political, they seem to take a different route to politics than more conventional activist performance. By “stretching the notions of time,” Menzo aims to “generate new readings” for the black body.” Jonas Rutgeerts, The Drama Review (2025)
Team
Dates
Current
Further Information
Visitor note
Price: €29, reduced €20
After the performance on 12.5. : Artist Talk / English
After the performance on 13.5.: Break @WAU / Admission free
Credits
Production: GRIP & Theater Utrecht. In Collaboration with: Dance On Ensemble / Bureau Ritter. International Distribution: A propic - Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent. Co-Production: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Carreau du Temple - Etablissement culturel et sportif de la Ville de Paris, Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam, Julidans Amsterdam, PACT Zollverein. Funded by the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Festival Montpellier Danse 2025, le Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans – Direction Maud Le Pladec, Tanzquartier Wien, DDD – Festival Dias da Dança, festival d’Automne à Paris, One Dance Festival, Perpodium. With the Support of: Centre nationale de la danse à Pantin, BRONKS, KWP Kunstenwerkplaats, l’Atelier de Paris - Centre de développement chorégraphique national. With the Financial Support of: The Flemish Government, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest, BNG Bank Theaterprijs, Charlotte Köhler Prijs van het Cultuurfonds, Culture Moves Europe, a project funded by the European Union and the Goethe-Institut, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Location
HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Four relaxed seats are available in the first row of HAU2.
