Louise Westerhout

 Photograph by Ryan Dick.

Rooming with Shadows and unclear were premiered in 2022 at Body Politic. Both pieces forged out of harrowing experiences.  Louise and Denise as survivors and activists have worked hard to restore their settings and now in 2025 present the evolved versions of the same pieces, imbued with presence, critical theory,rage, wisdom and self-knowledge. This offering is hyper accessible and pushes the boundaries of what disability access can look like through the decolonial practices of consent and accountability. The sharing offered captioning, text sharing, trigger warnings, soft rest areas, stimming stations, hot tea and snacks.  Louise and Denise also presented the South African premiere of Becoming Cyborg Made Me Human, a film which has enjoyed critical success and been well received in Germany and Cyprus. 

“We invite you to an inclusive, immersive, co-held offering where we will move through experiences together.

Our friendship intersects art and allyship and often our unique and intense sharing can be 2am voice note exchanges, sharing our fears and prayers while the world sleeps.  Finally saying goodnight and sleeping a little safer knowing the other is a beloved.  We want to share with you some of the themes of these conversations.

This is an exploration of the micropolitics of care and decolonising the hierarchies between performer and audience, listener and storyteller. We bring our offering, extending the warmest invitation to our kin: queer, disabled, BIPOC, survivors.

We, in particular, are sharing reflexively from a place of vulnerability. Because of the nature of sharing, we want to create a space that is centred in care and awareness: awareness about what we are sharing/showing as art, but also about being in process, seeking/exploring safe sharing together.

We would like to create a space that holds people — the way we hold each other’s vulnerability as friends.”

Links to the full performances on request.

Denise L.L. Onen

www.deniseonen.com

Review by Mercy Thokozane Minah

unclear | Rooming with Shadows | Becoming Cyborg Made Me Human was a moving, beautiful and filling experience. It was one of the most accessible theatrical offerings I have ever had the delight of attending. Denise and Louise carefully negotiated so many different avenues of access intimacy, inviting the audience to consider our comfort and needs while also holding space for the comfort and needs of those sharing. In addition to the nurturing tenderness of creating an accessible environment, each of them shared their stories gorgeously. Denise’s Rooming with Shadows felt like a gentle descent into the murky waters of depression, shame and anxiety, a journey that was at times familiar and other times unsettling with its visceral honesty and vulnerability. Louise’s unclear felt like a quiet conversation with an old friend, with many moments that made me laugh out loud and others that made me burst into tears. Their collaborative short film Becoming Cyborg Made Me Human was a thrumming masterpiece, with a score, imagery and words that came together with the force and poignancy of a beating heart. Despite covering difficult themes, including mental health, survivorship, trauma, abuse and death, the offerings these artists shared were delivered in a way that felt rooted in integrity and care, which allowed me as an audience member to feel my capacity for empathy and confronting harrowing material, expand in real time.”