Nine amateur actors aged over sixty, almost all of them old stars of the cross-dressing variety, who dance through their lives combining the masculine and the feminine, laughter and anguish, past and present. A play from two of the most interesting european artists in the last decades.

A success at the 2010 Avignon Festival.

"Gardenia is a well-cared for secret garden, where it is pleasant to be the gardener, even if everyone knows that roses prick." (Marie-Christine Vernay, Libération)
"Everything they have not done. Everything they have not been. (···) You wanted to cry out in gratitude for the performance. But you couldn’t for the lump in your throat." (Daniel Conrod, Télérama)
"An emotive piece, cruel, sometimes funny. And above all, very tender." (Pierre Grosbois, Le Monde)

cast
Gerrit Becker / Griet Debacker / Andrea De Laet / Richard "Tootsie" Dierick / Hendrik Lebon (replacing Timur Magomedgadzhiev) / Danilo Povolo / Rudy Suwyns / Vanessa Van Durme / Dirk Van Vaerenbergh

set Paul Gallis / costumes Marie "costume" Lauwers / lighting Kurt Lefevre / music Steven Prengels / sound Sam Serruys / costume advice Yan Tax

set up made by atelier NTGent / costumes made by atelier Anette De Wilde, atelier NTGent directed by An De Mol with Mieke Van der Cruyssen, Sul Hee Mys and Helena Verheyen / coiffures Claudine Grinwis Plaat Stultjes / stage manager Wim Van Cappelle / lighting technician Jan Vereecken / sound technician Sam Christiaens / management Valerie Desmet / management on tour Emilie De Roo / distribution Fransbrood

and the teams of Teatre Lliure

thanks to Kryolan België (professional make up) i Marie-Jo & Prima Donna (lingerie)

coproduction Les ballets C de la B, Festival d’Avignon, NTGent (Gand), La Rose des Vents Scène Nationale Lille Métropole/Villeneuve-d’Ascq, TorinoDanza (Torino), Biennale de la Danse-Lyon, Tanz im August (Berlin), Théâtre National de Chaillot  (Paris), Brighton Festival, Centro Cultural Vila Flor (Guimarães, Portugal), La Bâtie-Festival de Genève and Festival d’Avignon

with the support of the Flemish authorities, the Ville de Gand and the Province of the Flandre-Orientale