MAI to Present World Premiere of New Show A HOLE IS A HOLE IS A HOLE IS

MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) will present the world premiere of A HOLE IS A HOLE IS A HOLE IS, by Hamburg/Berlin-based artists Sappho Ton Bogataj, Christopher Ramm and Marco Merenda, artists from the fields of choreography, performance, dramaturgy and multimedia composition. The show runs April 24 –26, 2025.

The three creators invite the audience to participate in a dystopic dinner party filled with dirty confessions, stories, tender moments and existential questions about legacy, ageing, and what it means to exist in queer time; detached from the heteronormative cycles of marriage, reproduction, and predetermined milestones. How do you face the void of not following the same path as everyone else? Bogataj, Ramm and Merenda use this transgenerational queer coming of age performance to share their experience.

Two years in the making, this performance is the culmination of common questions, contemplations and fears that arise after turning 30. No longer young, not yet old, it’s a time when the weight of expectations and uncertainty become undeniable. 

The table serves as both a literal and symbolic stage at the heart of the performance. A place of gathering, confession, and tradition, the table is transformed into a space where vulnerability and humour give way to cathartic conversations. Each artist brings their own comedic sensibility to invert power dynamics and reclaim narratives of ageing and queerness. Difficult topics are addressed, but humour and irony soften their edges.

The performers navigate between moments of intimacy and confrontation where improvisation with the audience blurs the line between performer and spectator. Movement flows between the absurd and the deeply personal—gestures of toasting, reaching, pushing, and pulling morph into abstract expressions of identity, desire, and memory. As the performance evolves, the dinner table is turned into a dancefloor, confessions spill into collective movement, and the boundaries of performance dissolve. This choreographic approach resists linear storytelling, instead embracing a queer temporality where past, present, and future overlap.

The sound design is created by Christopher Ramm, who took inspiration from queer pop anthems, 90s and early 2000’s coming of age music and Nirvana-esque grunge sounds to create soundscapes throughout the piece.

Alongside these influences is the concept of the "hole", which permeates both the choreography and soundscape. A hole as an abyss, a space of transformation, and a fundamental part of the body. Queer pop anthems and bubbly, slimy liquid sounds merge with analogue synthesizers and glitchy nature recordings, creating a synthetic nature hyperpop soundscape.

Ultimately, A HOLE IS A HOLE IS A HOLE IS offers a moment of relief amid today’s turbulent landscape for queer folks. It is a celebration of the strange, the unglamorous, and the deeply human aspects of queerness.

Photo credit: Lorenz Vetter

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