Up Your Ass

Nona Demey Gallagher & Lieselot Siddiki present Up Your Ass, Valerie Solanas’ infamous 1965 comedy. The text has had a controversial status in the feminist (queer) community for years, but is now seeing the European theatre light for the first time.

New York, the Sixties. Main character Bongi Perez – a substitute for Solanas herself – is a crude hustler and sex worker. She hangs out on the streets with quite a few eccentric characters, where she fills her days with vulgar discourses, clapping and wooing female passers-by. When she meets Ginger and Russel – a daddy’s girl and a male narcissist – a chain of absurd (anti-)intellectual discussions about the state of society immediately ensues. Bongi, Ginger and Russel shamelessly spit their beliefs at each other – resulting in unthinkable and grotesque situations. 

Valerie Solanas is best known today for her attack on Andy Warhol, but her literary legacy includes important radical-feminist works, such as SCUM Manifesto and Up Your Ass. After Andy Warhol refused to produce Up Your Ass, Solanas tried to shoot him. Nona and Lieselot got in close contact with Solanas’ last living relative and were the first and only ones to get permission to perform Up Your Ass.

Performers Sophia Bauer, Bavo Buys, Lucie Plasschaert and Lucas Van Der Vegt fulminate Solanas’ words from the 1960s to a rhythm that, at times, is quite similar to today’s.

"Up Your Ass is a rollercoaster, deliciously exaggerated, rock 'n roll, in your face. Fasten your seatbelts and discover genuine acting talent" – Juryquote

Bio

Nona Demey Gallagher & Lieselot Siddiki met within the interdisciplinary collective ZUIDPARK where they collaborated on the performance The Importance of Being Flemish (2020). After a second collaboration for Nachtzwemmen (2021) by Lieselot Siddiki & Jarne Van Loon, they are directing together for the first time for Up Your Ass. In doing so, they take on the aesthetics of the 1960s, while pushing the boundaries of good taste and morals.