Orlando & Mikael

Swedish director Marcus Lindeen brings to Lisbon two plays that are part of his “Trilogy of Identities”, created with the collaboration of playwright Marianne Ségol-Samoy. Orlando and Mikael meet while recording an interview about his gender reassignment operation. An intimate conversation about substantial choices, the desire to be loved and the dream of finding oneself.

“Regretters” was Lindeen’s first piece of documentary theatre. Created in 2006, it opened up a work between theatre and film. The play gave rise to a documentary film in 2010 (Prix Europa in Berlin). “Orlando et Mikael” is a new version of the text, drawing on the film archives to re-examine the story of Orlando and Mikael and understand what it means today, at a time when a wide range of trans identities are claiming their place in public discourse. Are we anything other than the sum of the multiple roles we try to play? Does this “self” that the characters have chased in their bodies all their lives without ever reaching it really exist? Are the people we see not just the unstable result of their actions inscribed in their bodies? The two characters are perhaps neither man nor woman, but they are undoubtedly Orlando and Mikael.

Text and staging: Marcus Lindeen
Artistic collaboration, dramaturgy and translation: Marianne Ségol-Samoy
With: Samia Ferguene and Jó Bernardo
Music and sound design: Hans Appelqvist
Set design: Mathieu Lorry-Dupuy
Costumes: Charlotte Le Gal
Lighting: Diane Guérin
Casting: Naelle Dariya
Voice recordings: Kévin Lelanier, Pierre Maillet
Stage management, light and video operation: Dimitri Blin
Sound operation: Antoine Quoniam
Production: Comédie de Caen-CDN de Normandie in the framework of the Pôle Européen de création and Wild Minds company.
Co-production: Le Méta-CDN de Poitiers Nouvelle-Aquitaine, T2G-CDN de Gennevilliers, Festival d’Automne à Paris
Support for creation: Drac Île-de-France
Translation support: Swedish Arts Council
Support: Sonia och Gustav Forssius Stiftelse
Review of inclusive language in the synopsis text in Portuguese: André Tecedeiro and Laura Falésia
Image: Maya Legos