The ICK co-production The Obsessors, with provocateur, director, and Roma and queer artist Thais Di Marco is inspired by the ancient Umbanda ritual of “desobsessão”. This Brazilian spiritual practice takes place every Friday in public sessions. It is a ritual that cleanses individuals of “lost dead souls” believed to provoke obsessive behaviour.

The project explores how this dramaturgy can be translated into a contemporary popular performance that enters theatre spaces.

Thais Di Marco works with their methodology, Retelling Structures, which replaces key elements in order to destabilise dominant frameworks. Through critical entertainment and comedy, they create space to restage social conflicts, opening a window for grief, liberation and dreaming about the future.