Léa Katharina Meier
HiHiHaHa ! La Grande Bibli’ Cracra
theatre, performance
- 75'
- B Accessible to persons with reduced mobility
Léa Katharina Meier
Artistic Collaboration and Performance
Alina Arshi, Mayara Yamada
Assistant and Artistic Collaboration
Marlène Charpentié
Dramaturgy and Artistic Collaboration
Adina Secretan
Writing Consultant
Nayansaku Mufwankolo
Costumes and Props
Safia Semlali and Nico Gay
Scenography
Antonie Oberson, Léa Katharina Meier
Sound Design and Sound Operation
Charlotte Carteret
Lighting Design, Lighting Operation and General Stage Management
Nidea Henriques
External Perspectives
Tatiana Baumgartner, Camilla Paolino
Administration, Production and Distribution
Artemisia Romano
Research Laboratory on Shame
The creative team, Marcela Santander Corvalán, Lisa Laurent and Emma Saba
Acknowledgements
Serena Bassi, Pauline Castelli, Max Léo Hauri, Valentina D’Avenia, Margaux Lang, Juliana Stadelman, Catherine Travelleti
Co-production
Arsenic – Contemporary Performing Arts Centre
Pre-purchase
TU – Théâtre de l’Usine, Geneva
Residency Host
Théâtre Saint-Gervais
Support
Cantonal Performing Arts Fund – Canton of Vaud; Performing Arts Commission of the City of Lausanne; Loterie Romande Vaud; Fondation Leenaards
Research Support
Migros Culture Percentage
Housing Support
L’Abri
In a very special drenched library, three embodied books – embodied by Alina Arshi, Mayara Yamada and Léa Katharina Meier – welcome you into their sweet and cringe adventure throughout their archives of feelings.
You will meet the vacuum of emotions, the books of pleasure in the closet, the incontinent bitches, inner children, a disgruntled fridge, very standard victims and many more lovable and frightening characters. Through laughter and make-believe, the books of the library present shame as a source of knowledge and potential for future joyful moments.
HiHiHaHa! La Grande Bibli‘ Cracra is a fabulous and grotesque tale diving in the relation between traumas and fiction. Disobedient to her own rules, this library plays at a dream-like rhythm, in-between unconsciousness and nightmares, with a playfully critical gaze. Sometimes mean and cruel – on norms and the morals of authoritative structures, such as archives, school, families or heterosexuality.
The aesthetic of the piece (costumes, set and characters) come from Léa Katharina Meier’s drawing practice.
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Biography
Léa Katharina Meier is a performance and visual artist based in Lausanne. Using clowning as a performative practice, she explores the embodiment of emotions commonly defined as negative, treating them as a source of pleasure. Fairy tales, the body as archive, grotesque femininity, shame, and a childlike imaginary are recurring motifs throughout her work.
She has presented her work in numerous art spaces, theatres, and festivals across Switzerland, Italy, and France. In 2021, she received both the Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Swiss Performance Art Awards for Tous les sexes tombent du ciel (“All Genders Fall from the Sky”), a piece that was presented in 2025 as part of the Swiss Selection at the Avignon Festival (France).