With inviting fearlessness, deep poetic force, and disarming humor, Brazilian artist Jéssica Teixeira looks back in her Frankfurt debut. Her award-winning performance “Monga” confronts the brutality of 19th-century freak shows, where human bodies were put on display for sensation-hungry audiences. Through live music and the occasional shot of cachaça, Teixeira breaks with this exploitative power of the gaze and invites the audience into vivid forms of connection.
“Monga” traces the life of Mexican dancer, performer, and singer Julia Pastrana (1834–1860), whose career was shaped by inhumane working conditions and exploitation. Even after her early death at the age of 26, her body continued to be exhibited in freak shows. Working from her own body, Teixeira continues her research into colonialism and ableism. In the harsh glare of the spotlight, she reflects and exposes the act of looking itself. Beneath the shimmer of a disco ball, she creates an intimate space suspended between homage, atonement, and spectacle.
Infos
- Duration: 90 min.
- Language: Portuguese spoken language with German and English surtitles and Deaf-Performance
- Age: recommended for ages 18 and up
- Note: Strobe lighting is used
Accessibility
Accessibility of Event
Accessibility of Location
- mit Deaf-Performance
- DGS to go: Übersetzer*innen in Deutsche Gebärdensprache vor Ort vor und nach der Veranstaltung
- DGS-Flyer auf Vimeo
Sponsors and Supporters
Director, screenplay, and performance: Jéssica Teixeira
Artistic director: Chico Henrique
Musical director and guitar: Luma
Technical director and lighting design: Jimmy Wong
Assistant for lighting installation and operation: Dara Duarte
Video/photography director: Ciça Lucchesi
Deaf Performance: Janos-Calvin Giuranna
German Sign Language Translation: Magdalena Giuranna, Nick Barik Bicakoglu
Physical preparation: Castilho
Zabumba: Juliano Mendes
Stage manager: Aristides Olivera
Producers: Rodrigo Fidelis, Gabi Gonçalves, and Khazar Masoumi – Corpo Rastreado
International distribution: Corpo a Fora and Farofa
Funded as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture as part of the series All In – Theater by everyone for everyone. With the kind support of the Friends and Sponsors of Mousonturm e.V.
DGS translation: Part of the accessibility measures at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, funded by the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt and the Aventis Foundation.
Biography
Jéssica Teixeira is an actress, director, playwright, and producer with a degree in Theater and a Master’s in Arts from the Federal University of Ceará. Currently, she uses her weird body as the raw material for her research, which resulted in two theatrical solos, “A.L.S.O” (2019) and “Monga” (2024), which won Best Direction at Brazil’s most renowned theater award, the 35th Shell Prize, and the ZKB Förderpreis 2025 – Switzerland’s Highest Theater Award at the Theater Spektakel in Zürich. In the audiovisual field, she has acted in several short films, including “Noz Pecã” (2024), for which she received the Best Actress award at the Gaúcha Exhibition of Brazil’s largest cinema festival: the 52nd Gramado Film Festival. She also starred in the feature film “Acsexybility” (2023) and series “The Others“ (2023), both produced by streaming Globoplay.
Hinweise zum Inhalt und zu sensorischen Reizen
- Content: Discussion of ableism and experiences of racism, death (including during childbirth), dissection, murder, exploitation, reproduction of ableist language, alcohol (including serving alcohol to the audience)
- Sensory stimuli: Strobe lights, dim lighting, spotlights, flickering images on a screen, reflective disco ball, loud music, loud siren noises, smell of alcohol, fog
- Interaction: Questions to the audience and individuals, touching hands (1st row), invitation to dance, distribution of rum shots to the audience with an invitation to drink