Punk intersex play to rock Adelaide and Sydney

THE Adelaide Festival is bringing audiences the Australian premiere of a provocative and erotic performance art show.

MDLSX is a blurring of fiction and autobiography. The show is loosely based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel Middlesex, which deals with issues of gender through the perspective of its intersex protagonist.

Italian performer Silvia Calderoni incorporates media including home movies to also tell her own life story and celebrate androgyny.

The show has been performed to rave reviews all over the world, from Moscow to Taipei. After its Australian premiere in Adelaide, it will also rock Sydney.

MDLSX stars Calderoni as ‘Cal’, a character who was born intersex, and lived first as female then as male.

The New York Times called the show “visually ravishing”. It features music by The Smiths, Vampire Weekend, R.E.M., and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs in a DJ set by Calderoni.

Calderoni, who is genderfluid, says the show is very personal to her.

“MDSLSX is a work I am moved by every time I perform it,” she says.

“It makes me work on an emotional level every night, particularly when I use the projection of images taken from my childhood and teenage years.

“Every night it feels like a rite, a punk rock concert. Every night is exceptional and the audience definitely plays a part in that.

“It is a work which tries to simplify, but not to even out; which tries to move, but not to convince. And this is possible because there are many different levels that are carried forward contemporarily.”

MDLSX is playing from March 10–13 as part of the Adelaide Festival.

The show is also playing at Carriageworks in Sydney from March 16–18.