Part of PeriferiK
Full program
Lee Miller in Hitler's bathtub
Needcompany
Lee Miller. (War) photographer and journalist, top model, cover girl, and alcoholic. Abused, reviled, adored, and discarded. And then there is that one photo: ‘Lee in Hitler’s bathtub’. What possessed Lee to enter Hitler’s apartment and wash herself in his bathtub? The performance begins the moment she stands before Hitler’s bathtub in her stinking clothes, suffocated by the stench of Dachau.
In a stream of thought, Lee Miller takes the viewer into her approach to photography, into her view of her own body and beauty, which were so often viewed as objects. She describes the war images she photographed, her struggle with the horror and the craftsmanship, in search of beauty or authenticity, absurd thoughts about Hitler and his wife Eva Braun, about her Parisian connections with avant-garde artists, her relationship with Man Ray, the abuse she suffered, the painful treatment, Lee’s father who photographed her from a young age, and the nightmares that haunted her.
Lee Miller in Hitler's Bathtub is not a biographical portrait of Lee Miller, but uses a number of moments from Lee Miller's life to create a portrait of a woman in the shadow of so many famous and infamous men.
I wanted to create a portrait in which it is no longer about Lee, but about so many muzzled women in art history. — Jan Lauwers
• Maarten Seghers (Antwerp, 1982) is a performer, theatre-maker, and composer. In his performance oeuvre (among others, Concert of a Band Facing the Wrong Way), Maarten Seghers confronts himself with autonomous sound, movement, and visual artists. The drama of his performances does not unfold in the psychological conflict between characters, but in the physical confrontation between the bodies of his performers and the musical composition.
His music includes compositions, songs, and sound installations for dance and theatre productions as well as concert performances. From exploration of the boundaries of vocal, musical, and performative engagement, works emerge for live ensembles, such as in De blinde dichter (2015) or Al het goede (2019), for voice and tape, as in De kamer van Isabella (2004) or Billy’s Violence (2021), and he writes song cycles such as Songs of Disconnection (2023) for voice and contemporary classical ensemble and the composition for mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey and a five-piece ensemble based on Lee Miller in Hitler’s Bathtub (2025).
• Jan Lauwers (Antwerp, 1957) is an artist who employs virtually every medium. Over the past thirty years, he has become best known for his groundbreaking theatre work with the company Needcompany, founded in Brussels in 1986. In the meantime, he has built up a substantial oeuvre of visual work that has been exhibited at BOZAR (Brussels), McaM (Shanghai), and others. Jan Lauwers studied painting at the Ghent Academy of Fine Arts. In late 1979, he gathered a number of people in his sphere to form the Epigonenensemble. In 1981, this group was transformed into the collective Epigonentheater zlv (without leadership of), which surprised the theatre landscape with six theatre productions. Jan Lauwers co-founded Needcompany with Grace Ellen Barkey. The group of performers that Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Barkey have assembled is unique in its versatility. In 2001, composer and performance artist Maarten Seghers joined Needcompany.
composition Maarten Seghers │ libretto, direction and scenography Jan Lauwers │ performed by Lee Miller - actress Romy Louise Lauwers, Lee Miller - mezzo-soprano Ellen Rose Kelly, Man Ray George van Dam, a five-person music ensemble │ piano, violin George van Dam │ contrabassoon Bert Helsen │ trombone Adrien Lambinet │ cello Simon Lenski │ percussion Aya Suzuki │ dramaturgy Elke Janssens │ assistant to the director Emily Hehl │ musical advise Rombout Willems │ ranslation English Donald Gardner │ translation German Interlingua, Emily Hehl │ production manager Rune Floryn │ sound design Dries D'Hondt │ assistance costume Sharlotta Seeligmüller, Simon Perotti (intern) │ light assistant Astrid Vansteenkiste │ ice sculpture Benoît Gob │ surtitles Elke Janssens, Sharlotta Seeligmüller │ production Needcompany │ co-production Wiener Staatsoper, Per Podium │ thanks to ICTUS ensemble (Brussels) │ created with support of the Flemish Authorities and the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government via BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance NV
Good to know
This performance contains strobe lighting.
Some scenes contain sensitive imagery related to child abuse and concentration camps. These subjects may be distressing or triggering for some viewers.
‘Lee Miller in Hitler’s Bathtub' is neither a historical nor biographical portrait of artist Lee Miller and should be seen as fiction; combining actual historical events with fictional elements. The interpretation of the Lee Miller character is based on artistic choices and Jan Lauwers’ vision and may differ from historical documentation or biographies. Some dialogue, situations and interactions are invented.’
Not officially sanctioned by the Lee Miller Archive.
