The Four Stages: A Hysterical Manual

The art of diagnosis has long belonged to theory in medicinal practice. In some circumstances, it has been represented, demonstrated, and defended in the theatrical setting. The most famous stage in this sense was constructed by Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot in 19th-century Paris at the Salpêtrière hospital—where Charcot’s influential study of hysterical women dissolved the boundaries between performance and illness.

The Four Stages turns Dr. Charcot’s diagrams and writings into choreographic directives. His lectures are molded into an absurd video that explores and celebrates the performance of female insanity.