Rea

Rea is a performance centered on the mythological figure of Rhea, exploring her inner world through voice, stones, and movement.

The work engages with the concept of womanhood, creating a dialogue between Greek mythology and contemporary perspectives — particularly in relation to women’s conditions today. It raises fundamental questions around identity: what defines a woman? What does it mean to be a woman, a partner, a mother? For those who identify as women, which roles are imposed, chosen, or inherited within society? What motivates these roles, and how are they experienced emotionally?

The use of stones becomes a central performative element, evoking the relationship between human beings, nature, and cyclical time — suggesting processes of death and rebirth.

“Rea was a Titaness

Rea was a woman

Rea was a mother 
Rea was a wife
- Of Chronos, Time. 

Chronos swallowed all her children, one after
the other, the second they came out of her.

For fear of being overthrown, as the prophecy said. As Chronos did to his father.

Until

Rea said, on top of a mountain, exhausted, in shreds

Enough. 

Enough, Time, the sacrifice of my own flesh for your salvation has lasted way too long already.

She put a stone into the cloth where her last newborn, Zeus, was supposed to be: Chronos swallowed it. 

Treason, or justice?

Her name in Greek means flow and ease. 
In Latin, it also means guilty.” 

Creator & Performer: Camilla Barbera

General Support & Lightning Design: Jean-Charles Vallet
Lighting Design and Technician: Jean-Charles Vallet in collaboration with Toph Enany.
Video Credits Oscar Loeser
Photo Credits Ewelina Pigula

In collaboration with Arthaus Berlin.