For her new creation, Nadia Beugré takes a solitary journey. A journey to the village of her ancestors, the village of her childhood: Yikakou. This village no longer exists: the land, considered cursed, is now covered with forest. Beugré’s journey developed into a quest for various archetypal female figures.

The figure of the grandmother who gave her the name Gbahihonon, “woman who says what she sees”. The figure of Dô-Kamissa, the ageing woman who, after being wronged by her brother, transformed herself into a buffalo to destroy his land. Acting as a female oracle, she skilfully arranged the marriage of the king with Sogolon Kandé, the hunchbacked woman.

Beugré incarnates all these different women in an incredibly powerful solo performance. With generous and explosive performativity, she shares every drop of her own existence and that of her ancestors who still live within her. Inhabited by these female voices from the past, between collective memories and intimate recollections, Beugré surrounds herself on stage with two other women: a griot, the chronicler of forgotten clans and stories, and a musician/singer. Both echo and bear witness to her story in this captivating performance presented at the opening of the festival.