Recovering the own body on stage. Obstetrical violence and documentary theatre. Iria Pinheiro’s Anatomía dunha serea

Abstract

From her own experience and through conversations with other women, the actress Iria Pinheiro confirms obstetrical violence as one of the more socially normalized ways of violence against women. By staging Anatomía dunha serea (Anatomy of a mermaid) (october 2018) Pinheiro appropriates her own body back and the collective feminine body, so she recovers from what she has suffered through theatrical catharsis, and she dismantles patriarchal operational that construct women’s bodies as passive objects for (male) pleasure and for reproduction. With the aim of investigate this potential a performance has to fight against patriarchal oppression, one of the most naturalized and invisibles ways of domination that perpetuates subjugation relationships into social boy, and from a methodology focused on theatre studies and performance studies, we have analyzed this performative usage of the own body, and also documentary theatre. We analyse which strategies are used: appearance, distancing technique, own body’s and own voice’s usage, production conditions, audience and press’ acceptance. And finally, we’ll value documentary theatre’s potentiality for feminist fight. We’ve seen audience and press’ acceptance for this staging, six months after its premiere. This acceptance shows that obstetrical violence and motherhood are extremely interesting for general public. This staging has been a ground-breaking one. We concluded that the ability to decide on the own pregnancy and own birthing is a first-class political issue, and to put it on the public arena, on stage, is an emancipation strategy.