Hymen

What stories do our bodies hold? How can lived experience be transformed into a shared, collective female body? These are among the questions at the heart of Hymen, a performance by Nagia T. Karacosta, presented on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 20:30 at Romantso, as part of Athens Pride 2026.

Poster for the performance “Hymen”. Against a fuchsia background, sketches of nude female bodies are formed in thin white lines, occasionally overlapping one another. Above and around them, white lettering presents the event information: “Hymen, a documentary performance on the collective female body, Nagia T. Karacosta, 27/05/2026 20:30, Romantso, Athens, free admission. Interpretation in Greek Sign Language.” In the bottom right corner, the logos of liminal and Athens Pride appear in white.

I have not yet been born,
but I will be, and I will be assigned woman, girl […]
and at 700, at 800, at 900,
I will be all of you and you will be all of me.
We will be a body that carries other women within it,
like a matryoshka, for example.

An interactive Documentary performance on the collective female body.

The performance begins with an audio recording of women’s voices, weaving together truths and fictions drawn from their lived experiences of femininity.

At the same time, the performer enters the space carrying an armful of clothes. Clothes as identities, clothes as moments. She moves toward the microphone and invites “any women who would like to raise their hand if…” before continuing with a list of experiences.

The face of a young blonde woman with brown eyes is projected at a monumental scale onto a corrugated metal sheet, punctured with small holes across its surface. In front of the projection, bathed in its light, a young woman with short brown hair walks barefoot across the stage space, holding in her hand a piece of blue fabric resembling a crumpled shirt or blouse. Looking down, she appears ready to drop it, while other similarly sized fabrics lie scattered across the floor. A microphone on the left side and the heads of audience members in the foreground indicate that this is a moment captured from a live performance.

Hands rise and fall, forming a living record of shared experience. Hymen speaks to the collective female body, and in this gesture, we are made to feel less alone.

A shared act of vulnerability—for what we voice and what we keep hidden, for what we carry, for what we feel together, for what we desire, for what we claim and celebrate as our own.

The work is entirely the result of an eight-month cycle of experiential theatre and movement workshops designed and facilitated by Nagia T. Karacosta in Greece and Cyprus (2021), and remains in continuous transformation, shaped by the shifting sociopolitical present.

ℹ️ Throughout the performance, interpretation in Greek Sign Language will be provided, along with surtitles for D/deaf and hard of hearing audiences.

Hymen has already been presented with great success at international performing arts and socially engaged festivals, including Femme Fest (Cyprus, 2025), Reclaiming the Night (Cyprus, 2023), Akropoditi DanceFest (Greece, 2022), Pop Up, and Open House (Cyprus, 2021).

Credits

Concept, research, text, performance: Nagia T. Karacosta
Video (in order of appearance): Konstantina Skalionta, Eleftheria Sokratous, Belinda Papavasileiou, Dimitra Kamari, Aphrodite Skinner, Eleni Varda

Interpretation in Greek Sign Language: Androniki Xanthopoulou
Surtitling for the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing: Grigoris Stathopoulos

Sound & video operation: Athens Pride volunteer team
Technical support: liminal

Useful information

Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Time: 20:30
Location: Romantso (5 Anaxagora Street, Athens 105 52)

Free admission

The venue is wheelchair accessible. There are no accessible restrooms.

The research was conducted within the framework of the “Moving the New” residency and artistic development program by the Limassol Dance House, in Greece and Cyprus.