Chronicle by Clara Angela Roman

The Sparkle of a Black River is a one-woman show with Gabriela Arancibia, directed by Carolina Pizarro. It is a powerful, sensitive, playful show, in which the actress adopts several poses: the girl who admires her grandfather as a soldier, the woman who condemns his mistakes, a leader whose goal is to achieve the union of his people, the grandparents who have disputes. The difference between the character's vision of the world at different ages is radical. As a child, she wants to become like her grandfather, she strangles her femininity and obeys a toxic male model (he beats his partner because “soldiers behave worse in times of peace”). She finds her grandmother's notebook, an archive of women who have “become” men in order to gain their freedom and choose an otherwise inaccessible job (musician, military, etc.). For a while, she wants to go the same way. As she grows up, she becomes aware of the oppression of the female sex and the involvement of her grandfather in the torture of those who fought for equal rights. She no longer wants to follow in her grandfather's footsteps but decides to show herself as she is and criticizes him for the acts of violence he has committed. “I could have been that woman,” she says, a reply that becomes the leitmotif of this show.

Dorothy Lawrence, Dorothy Tipton, Sarah Emma Edmonds, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Frances Clayton, Elisa Bernerstrom, Malinda Blalock, Hannah Snell, Deborah Sampson are just some of the women who have risked their lives by disguising themselves as the opposite sex. Many of them were mistreated and arrested after their true identity was revealed. We would think that in 2023, mentalities have evolved, but, unfortunately, in some parts of the world, things have remained the same. Gender discrimination is still present and destroys millions of people, as it is also mentioned in The Sparkle of a Black River.

To be a woman is difficult and painful. To be a woman involves a continuous struggle with sexualization and stereotypes. To be a woman means to face: “It's too difficult for you”, “You can't do that”, “You are too thin”, “You are too fat”, “You ware too much make-up”, “Dress up, because you are not feminine”, “Wear a dress, too”, “Why do you have such a short skirt?”, “You're a whore”, “You're too masculine”, “You are literally asking for it”. To be a woman in patriarchy is proof of courage (ironically, in the Romanian explanatory dictionary - DEX, the synonyms of the word “courageous” include: man, and male).

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“Ph[r]ases”- Creative Formulas is a programme conceived by Diana Katharina and Daniela Șilindean together with the team of the German State Theatre Timișoara, dedicated to the theatre chronicle within the Eurothalia 2023 European Theatre Festival, held between 20-30 September 2023, financed by the National Cultural Program Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023.