Magic Maids

25 Oct 2025

  • Tickets
    Pay What You Can
  • Venue
    Leeds School of Arts, Leeds Beckett University
  • Running time
    80 mins
  • Age guidance
    14+
  • Content Advisories

Eisa Jocson & Venuri Perera (Philippines & Sri Lanka)

Magic Maids interweaves performance, pageantry and possession. This feral incantation connects the European witch hunts to the exploitation of migrant women’s labour today.

The female figures of the witch and the maid are powerful and powerless, feared and revered, used, accused and discarded. The tropes are not mere hearsay and history but deeply rooted in today’s psyche.

International artists Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera have collected stories of migrant domestic workers from the so-called Global South, the echoes of which now haunt their bodies. In Magic Maids – the broom – a domestic cleaning tool, as well as the vehicle of the witch – becomes an extension of their body, that transforms oppression into feminist resistance.

The duo dance a ritual of disobedience.

Part of Transform 25 international performance festival: transformfestival.org

 

Performances at Transform 25 co-presented by Transform and Leeds School of Arts and supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK.

Produced by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm. Co-produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Frascati Producties (unterstützt durch Ammodo), Tanzquartier Wien, SPRING Performing Arts Festival, Festival Theaterformen, DDD – Festival Dias da Dança, Kampnagel, Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain, La briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne, Points Communs – nouvelle scène nationale Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise, Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. Funded within the framework of the Alliance of International Production

Book tickets

Sat 25 Oct

Important Information

This is a seated performance within a theatre venue. The performance contains dance, movement and music.

Leeds School of Arts is located off Portland Way in central Leeds (the building is adjacent to the Leeds Civic Hall/Leeds General Infirmary). There will be signage displayed outside the building directing you to the theatre.

Access

There is step free access to the event and there are accessible toilets at the venue.

The tiered seating is high-backed.

A rest area is available.

We have an open door policy across all shows at Transform, meaning ticket holders are welcome to come and go as they need.

Head to Transform’s Access page for more information.

  • MAJOR FUNDERS

    Arts Council
  • Leeds City Council
  • LTB Foundation
  • Founded by UK government
  • Suppoprted by west Yorkshire
  • Principal Partner

    Caddick Group
  • Principal Access Partner

    Irwin Mitchell