Mary Reid Kelley

Playground (STUK Kunstencentrum & M-Museum), Leuven / Thu 17 Nov, 9pm & 11.30pm / Fri 18 Nov, 7.30pm & 9.30pm / Sat 19 Nov, 7.30pm & 9.30pm / Sun 20 Nov, 6pm.

A pathologist examines the body of a woman whose own organs demonstrate their confusion and misunderstanding of her suicide. The actual speakers in the drama—the liver, heart, brain and other organs—signify the ‘offal’ from the work’s title and the ‘awful’ irrevocability of the act. But while even her own organs argue about what exactly took place, there’s certainly no hope of finding a rational, scientific explanation for this most tragic and complex of human actions.

This is Offal is an existentialist, feminist horror, brimming with macabre wordplay enacting Camus’ philosophy of the absurd as a counter to suicide. This Is Offal also satirises a long fascination with the beautiful, dead, silent woman as a subject in the arts. Mary Reid Kelley, born in Greenville, South Carolina (1979), often works in collaboration with her partner Patrick Kelley. This Is Offal is their first work for a live audience, and was produced by Playground (STUK & M-Museum, Leuven).

The performance set could be viewed as an installation during Playground 2016.