A car with its headlights on and doors open, three people are carrying someone wearing white

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The Bride and The Goodnight Cinderella

Carolina Bianchi Y Cara de Cavalo’s shock performance draws on art history and personal trauma to examine and test the memory of sexual violence against women.

Part of Performance & Dance - Autumn/Winter 2025/26

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This performance, CADELA FORÇA TRILOGY – Chapter I: The Bride and The Goodnight Cinderella, is the first part of Bianchi’s trilogy.

Rape and femicide are words that carry a significant weight, and Carolina Bianchi and the Cara de Cavalo collective give them all their heft and materiality in a performance whose two distinct parts reflect two corporal states.

The Bride refers to the tragic story of Italian artist Pippa Bacca, who undertook a performance in 2008 that proved fatal; crossing the Balkans by car, dressed as a bride, her journey came to a brutal halt in a Turkish forest, where she was raped, strangled, and later found dead.

Bianchi uses this story to weave a series of tales together that are presented to the audience in the form of a lecture, in which artistic references and harrowing stories are thrown together.

Good Night, Cinderella refers to the cynical name that Brazilians have given to the ‘rapist’s drug’, which knocks victims unconscious and erases their sense of time. Carolina Bianchi swallows a dose of it on stage, thus sending her performance into another dimension, a descent into hell.

Carolina Bianchi is a Brazilian theatre maker, writer and performer based in Amsterdam. Director of the collective organisation CARA DE CAVALO from São Paulo (‘horse face’), she uses references to literature, plastic arts and cinema to confront reality. Her research has led her to spaces between theatre, performance, and dance, to deal with questions having to do with the crisis of gender, sexual violence and art history.

A Production by Metro Gestão Cultural (Brasil), Carolina Bianchi Y Cara de Cavalo, in co-oproduction with Festival d’Avignon, KVS Brussels, Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne, Frascati Amsterdam.

Residency to finish the play and set construction took place at La FabricA du Festival d’Avignon, with other residencies including Frascati Theater, DAS Theatre (Amsterdam), Festival Proximamente/KVS (Brussels), Festival 21 Voltz/Central Elétrica (Porto), Pride Festival (Belgrade), Greta Galpão (São Paulo) and Espaço Desterro (Rio de Janeiro).

With the support of Theater Der Welt, The Ammodo Foundation, DAS Theatre Master Program, 3 Package Deal of the AFK – Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, Kaaitheater.

The show premiered on Thursday 6 July 2023 at the Festival d’Avignon.

Need to know

Age guidance

For ages 18+ only

Content warnings

Contains nudity and detailed descriptions of violence against women and femicide, portrayals of date rape drugs and rape, and a reference to violence against Black and indigenous women. Contains images and descriptions of self-cutting.

Event information

We encourage people who may find the content challenging but still wish to attend to consider coming with a trusted companion.

The performance features loud music, strobe lights and smoke.

This performance is 2 hours 30 mins without an interval.

The performance is spoken in Brazilian Portuguese and English, with English captions.

Latecomers may not be admitted.

Cast and Credits:
Conception, text and direction: Carolina Bianchi
Translation of texts into English and revision: Larissa Ballarotti, Luisa Dalgalarrondo, Joana Ferraz, Marina Matheus
Dramaturgist and partnership in continuous research process: Carolina Mendonça
Cast: Bruta, Carolina Bianchi, Chico Lima, Fernanda Libman, Joana Ferraz, José Artur, Larissa Ballarotti, Marina Matheus and Rafael Limongelli
Technical direction, Sound design and Original music: Miguel Caldas
Set design, Art and Graphic design: Luisa Callegari
Light design: Jo Rios
Videos and Screenings: Montserrat Fonseca Llach
Karaoke video: Thany Sanches
Costumes: Tomás Decina, Luisa Callegari, Carolina Bianchi
Art Assistant and General artistic collaboration: Tomás Decina
Collaboration in body and voice training: Pat Fudyda, Yantó
Dialogue on theory and dramaturgy: Silvia Bottiroli
Artistic collaboration: Edit Kaldor
Photos: Christophe Raynaud de Lage
Stage manager and production assistant: AnaCris Medina
Production assistant: Zuzanna Kubiak
Production direction, Tour manager and Communication: Carla Estefan
International relations, Production and Diffusion: Metro Gestão Cultural (Brasil).

Production:
A Production by: Metro Gestão Cultural (Brasil), Carolina Bianchi Y Cara de Cavalo
In Coproduction with: Festival d’Avignon, KVS Brussels, Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne, Frascati Amsterdam.
Residency to finish the play and set construction: La FabricA du Festival d’Avignon
Residencies: Frascati Theater, DAS Theatre (Amsterdam), Festival Proximamente/KVS (Brussels), Festival 21 Voltz/Central Elétrica (Porto), Pride Festival (Belgrade), Greta Galpão (São Paulo) e Espaço Desterro (Rio de Janeiro).
With the Support of: Theater Der Welt, The Ammodo Foundation, DAS Theatre Master Program, 3 Package Deal of the AFK – Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, Kaaitheater.
International relations, Production and Diffusion: Metro Gestão Cultural (Brasil).

Reviews

4 out of 5 stars
‘electrifying performance’The Guardian

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