becoming god
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Thu 19 Mar ’2620:15Tourlocatie, RotterdamFrascati Producties on tourTheater Rotterdam
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Sat 28 Mar ’2620:30Tourlocatie, LeidenFrascati Producties on tourIns Blau, Leiden
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Tue 13 Jan ’2620:00Try-outFrascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Wed 14 Jan ’2620:00Try-outFrascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Thu 15 Jan ’2620:00PremiereFrascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Fri 16 Jan ’2620:00Frascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Sat 17 Jan ’2620:00Frascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Wed 21 Jan ’2620:00Frascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Thu 22 Jan ’2620:00Frascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Fri 23 Jan ’2620:00Frascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Sat 24 Jan ’2620:00Frascati, AmsterdamFrascati 4
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Wed 4 Mar ’2620:00Tourlocatie, UtrechtFrascati Producties on tourTheater Kikker, Utrecht
Melyn grew up in a first-generation Christian family in Singapore. She was taught to fear her father's family temple in Malaysia, seen as unclean, spiritually dangerous, a place to be avoided. Any gods beyond the Christian ones were viewed with suspicion and treated as taboo.
becoming god emerges from a desire to explore precisely the space she was raised to reject: an inquiry that pulses with risk, tenderness, contradiction, and a longing to meet the divine on uncertain terms. In a society that has largely lost its sense of the sacred, the performance opens a compelling space for ritual, transcendence, and transformation.
Through live music, movement, and a performative score, composer Lưu Thoại Linh (Animistic Beliefs) and performers Sjaid Foncé and Nazar Rakhmanov join Melyn in a playful, devotional and unpredictable exploration of a forbidden, mystical other.
A key inspiration is Melyn’s uncle, Chow Tek Sen, a Chinese spirit medium (tang ki) who lends his body to the gods. This possession practice, known as 跳童, literally “divining youth” or “danced child”, functions as a crucial framework through which Melyn investigates identity and embodiment.
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Docu installation
An important part of the research for becoming god took place in Malaysia, in the Taoist temple of Melyn’s uncle, Chow Tek Sen. Excerpts from the documentary about Melyn’s research are screened every evening in the basement of Verbond Café (Nes 71). The documentary, featuring interviews and Melyn’s solo for her uncle, adds an additional visual and sensory layer to the performance and serves as a bridge between our local context and the one in which Melyn grew up.
The installation can be visited freely before the performances, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Afterparty
On Saturday 17 January, becoming god closes the first performance week with an afterparty at Verbond Café. Directly after the show, XAKALELE (of Animistic Beliefs) will play a DJ set. XAKALELE is the solo project of Mara Lalihatu (they/them), a Moluccan-Dutch artist and composer based in Rotterdam.
Their work explores the contradictions they’ve lived as a biracial, neuroqueer, and polyamorous person in Rotterdam. Moving between overlapping subcultures, they explore the tension and emotional weight of living between worlds. drawing from Southeast Asian Indigenous practices, early synth experimentation, rave, noise, and DIY culture.
Credits
concept & direction Melyn Chow in collaboration with performers Nazar Rakhmanov, Sjaid Foncé and sound designer Lưu Thoại Linh advisor & end direction Floor van Leeuwen light advisor Martin Kaffarnik styling advisor Sjaid Foncé sandals design Tisha larin x Softrot installation video documentary in collaboration with 邹德盛, 济公 editor Caleb Ming additional sound design Mina Tomic campaign image Bianca Pilet special thanks 邹德盛, 济公, Ruth Borg, Jon Silber, Hidde Aans-Verkade, Pleuni Veen, Paulina Prokop, Loes Schakenbos, Erik van de Wijdeven, ImPulsTanz ATLAS 2025 (Guy Cools) and Club Raum
VSCD Mime
Winner VSCD Mime/Performance Prize 2025 for Shaking shame. From the jury report: "The visible pleasure and freedom with which the performers move is contagious, but also sharpens the tension between shame and pleasure. A liberating exercise in vulnerability."
About Melyn Chow
Melyn Chow (she/her) grew up in Singapore and currently works in Dutch mime, physical theatre, contemporary dance and performance. She studied at both Lasalle College of the Arts (SG) and the Mime Opleiding at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (2022). As a performer, Melyn has worked with dance company RAW Moves (SG) and with creators such as Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Marina Abramovic, Nicole Beutler, Davy Pieters, Dries Verhoeven and Susanne Kennedy.
Melyn works within mime, contemporary dance and performance, carrying out research into the ‘female gaze’, sensuality versus shame and the erotic as a source of power. Her research often begins from the body in relation to movement, space and image.
Melyn has been affiliated with Frascati Productions since 2023. Together with Kim Zeevalk, she presented the “mime porn” video installation I happen to be doing this for you (2023) and Shaking shame (2023-2025) here in early 2023.
