Portrait de Rita

In September 2023, Mathis, a 9-year-old schoolboy near Charleroi, was subjected to racist insults from his classmates. In reaction, he flew into what the school considered an uncontrollable rage, prompting them to call the police. Upon arrival, his mother Rita discovered her son pinned to the ground by a police officer.

From this act of racist violence, writer and director Laurène Marx—specialist in solo performance—and actress, writer, and director Bwanga Pilipili chose to tell the story through the journey of the mother, Rita, a Cameroonian businesswoman who became a housekeeper. How does the white gaze contribute to a reductive and objectifying view of women? The writer questions an identity path that is not her own by exploring the zones of ambiguity and projection.

The uniqueness of the performance lies in the convergence of three perspectives: that of a mother at the heart of the story; that of an actress, both observer and victim of ethno-racial discrimination; and that of a white trans writer, offering her own reflections on whiteness. Three intersecting viewpoints, united by a shared experience of fetishization and dehumanization. Based on interviews with Rita Nkat Bayang, Laurène Marx and Bwanga Pilipili expose systemic racism that suffocates a woman at work just as it pins her son to the ground.

Coproduction Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles