Merry Stripmas – It Only Takes One • Berlin Strippers Collective
On a quiet holiday night at the strip club, the five protagonists of the Berlin Strippers Collective are confronted with issues such as power outage, financial crisis, pressure from the management, the threat of criminalization, and one lonely guest. They respond to the escalating situation with a stage show expressing their (political) anxieties, frustrations and, most important, their sense of humour.
Following the sold-out premiere for which they received standing ovations at Berlin’s Volksbühne in 2022, the show Merry Stripmas is brought back to the stage in an adapted, updated version this year. Let’s celebrate how they take ownership of their own narrative, let’s celebrate the art of finding humour in dark situations combined with a sense of pragmatism and the will to survive.
Sex workers are professional service providers and entertainers, and an essential part of Berlin’s cultural (night)life in clubs, theatres and on festivals. They are great performers and storytellers who stand against their life- and working world being stigmatised. Merry Stripmas – It Only Takes One is a show written, produced and performed by sex workers with the aim to challenge stereotypical narratives about their industry. It will be shown on two days in succession on 31 December 2023 and 1 January 2024 on the big stage of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.
The show is staged by current and former members of the Berlin Stripper’s Collective. During the three years of its existence, the Berlin Strippers Collective have left a lasting impression on Berlin’s cultural nightlife. They want to open up a discussion around sex work to destigmatise the industry and advocate for its decriminalisation in creative and political ways. Solidarity, support and care for each other are the foundation on which the collective is based, and they have a lot of fun of fusing sex, dance and politics in their shows.
Opening Act: Zebra Katz
With: Alice La Douce, Disco Bitch, Icy Ivy, Mia Onacid, River Roux & more tba
With voices by Daniel Warland and Juri Schoppe
Biogaphies:
Alice La Douce (she/her) is performer/singer/entertainer with fire, pole, areal hoop, choreography, started dancing young, attended musical school to become a choreographer and travel different countries to work behind the curtains in theaters but also on stage before moving to Berlin to dance, work as a dance and fitness teacher, model and do small film, tv commercial jobs and tattoo related jobs around the globe. She joined the collective in their second year after she started to work as a stripper in 2019, was part of the co-writing, co-directing and performing in productions of the Berlin strippers collective and for other shows with „mamuente“.
Disco Bitch (she/her): Disco is a performer in Berlin. Since starting her artistic journey, Disco has worked with themes that revolve around the performativity and politics of sex work. She’s written, directed and acted in performances that speak to the merge between the private self and the working self, giving us a glimpse of the vulnerability and life of a sex worker.
Icy Ivy (she/her): Ivy is an artist, performer and designer. She started dancing over a decade ago and has performed on different stages all over Berlin, Germany and Switzerland. Her passion for art that started at an early age has accompanied her and has transformed her shows into stories that she tells through body movement and comedy. Through sensual performances that flow slowly and controlled, Ivy wants to invite the crowd to feel their own body and freedom that comes from moving it.
Mia Onacid is a versatile storyteller through the mediums of dance, written and spoken word. They worked for four years in the Strippers Collective as an event and community organiser. Mia has conceptualised, hosted, co-written and co-directed projects ranging from cabarets to theater productions with all sex worker lineups, as part of their mission to destigmatize the profession.
River Roux (she/they): River is a performing artist and aerialist. She is frequently performing across Berlin‘s nightlife venues and has co-written, -directed and starred in multiple productions of the Berlin Stripper‘s Collective. Currently she is on stage in Lola Arias‘ Happy Nights at Theater am Goetheplatz in Bremen and pursuing her solo work on desire, disgust and androgyny.
More via www.river-roux.com
