Les thermes lets you hold the truth in your hand

Transcription

1 7/23/2014 Les thermes lets you hold the truth in your hand Les thermes lets you hold the truth in your hand Philosophical discussions are sparked by a dive in the ball bath at the Festival TransAmériques BY PAT DONNELLY, GAZETTE THEATRE CRITIC MAY 24, 2014 Les thermes offers the opportunity to dive into a wooden pool filled with 25,000 fist sized black plastic balls, each inscribed with a philosophical maxim. Photograph by: France Distraction MONTREAL Talking philosophy is one thing. Bathing in it is another. There s nothing theoretical about Les thermes, the total immersion experience offered by a French company called L Amicale de Production at Place des Arts for six days during the Festival TransAmériques. Interested parties are invited to dive into a wooden pool filled with 25,000 fist sized black plastic balls, each inscribed with a philosophical maxim. The FTA kicks off Thursday with two shows: Les thermes, which opens at the Esplanade Clark near PdA at noon, and Le NoShow, un show must go on à tout prix, which opens at the Cinquième Salle of PdA at 8:30 p.m. The festival continues until June 7, with 26 theatre and/or dance shows presented at various Montreal venues. (A 27th show, Helen Lawrence, which was to have opened the festival, has been cancelled.) 1/3

2 7/23/2014 Les thermes lets you hold the truth in your hand During a recent interview with Halory Goerger, one of the five creators of Les thermes, he quickly pointed out that this experiential show is but one of two that L Amicale de Production is bringing to the FTA. The main one, Germinal, is a more classical theatre piece, he said, although it has nothing whatsoever to do with the famous novel by Émile Zola. In contrast, Les thermes is much more rooted in visual art. It s an installation, Goerger said. All of the inscriptions on the plastic balls, he said, are derived from the meditations of the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. They include such sentences as: For all things fade away and are soon buried in oblivion (translated into French). In addition to diving, fetching, studying balls and playing catch, the public is invited to listen to the words of six modern philosophers who will appear poolside from time to time, delivering brief lectures as they share the spa experience. Socratic dialogue is encouraged. People jump into the pool and maybe scream and shout like kids, Goerger said. But it s a reading experience, too. Les thermes was collectively created in Belgium in 2012 by Goerger, Antoine Defoort, Belinda Annaloro, Julien Fournet and Sébastien Vial, as part of a travelling fair titled France Distraction. The concept includes inflatable castles, offices and a room for speeches, all meant to capture the spirit of a retirement party or a spa for depressed executives. Although Les thermes has toured in Europe as part of France Distraction, this is the first time it will be presented on the North American continent, Goerger said. And it s arriving without the rest of the fair. Germinal, co created by Goerger and Defoort, takes on the more serious business of creating a civilization from scratch. Both creators appear in this one, along with two other actors. Defoort has a background in visual arts and Goerger in information science. This is their first theatre show. In Germinal, Goerger said, our space is the stage and our time is the length of a theatre play. They wanted to explore what four people living in that space would have to invent in order for their society to be sustainable. They had to invent language, he said. They had to invent power and the idea of society. Since the idea was to create a universe, he added, we had to study a whole lot of topics and make choices. Some things proved unnecessary. Like transportation and sex. There s no place to go when you re stuck on a stage, and there s no point in reproducing when you re going to die within 75 minutes. I think every theatre piece is basically based on the same idea, Goerger said. It all comes down to 2/3

3 7/23/2014 Les thermes lets you hold the truth in your hand that: creating a universe with rules. Is there an actual script for Germinal? Yes. This is absolutely not improvised, he replied. It s very much written. Les thermes is open to the public at the Esplanade Clark near Place des Arts from noon to 8 p.m. through Tuesday, May 27. Free of charge. Germinal plays at Maison Théâtre, 245 Ontario St. E., May 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. and May 31 and June 1 at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $43, $38 for seniors and those under 30. The Festival TransAmériques continues until June 7. For more information, visit fta.qc.ca. pdonnell@montrealgazette.com Twitter: patstagepage Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette 3/3

4 7/23/2014 The stage redefined - The Nation Stage Review The stage redefined Pawit Mahasarinand Special to The Nation Lyon, France October 25, :00 am A wacky work by a Belgian troupe questions the very structure of performance At Les Subsistances, a performing arts centre on the northern bank of the Sane River, home to Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger's "Germinal", audience members are politely asked if they understand French and if, like me, they reply in the negative, they are handed a set of headphones. The Belgian pair's contemporary work was created at the centre during their residency there and subsequently presented to the public as part of the 15th Biennale de la danse Lyon last month. My immediate impression was that lighting designer hadn't meet his deadline, as the stage lights were flashing on and off without purpose. Like the rest the audience, I quickly realised that it was actually the four actors - Defoort and Goerger in addition to Arnaud Boulogne and Ondine Cloez - who were fumbling with the lighting control boards on the stage. Later, they started their silent dialogue, which we could only understand by reading French surtitles and those who couldn't read French now started hearing in English through the headphones. 2/9

5 7/23/2014 The stage redefined - The Nation With two actors standing on stage left and the other two on stage right, they played with the two screens of surtitles, which later became four, causing confusion as to who was saying what. It was a peculiar experience but had me asking myself whether when I see a performance or film in a foreign language, I am watching the story unfold on the screen or reading the surtitles/subtitles. It was also a reminder that actors were simply serving the playwrights - that what they were saying on stage were not actually their words. After the surtitles scene, one of them went backstage and returned with an in-house communication headphone, through which they talked to the stage manager, reminding us this time that she was the true boss calling the cues and running the performance. They then physically dug up the bare stage and when they found a guitar, turned the performance into a musical number, showing how any dialogue or situation can easily be turned into a musical to entertain the audience. The fun continued as they started to formulate concepts in the hope that these would lead to a legitimate performance. On a backdrop visible to the audience, they gathered words for everything around them, their names included, and tried to categorise these, setting as a criterion the sound it created when knocked by a microphone. A question here is: does one needs to find a concept in order to create a contemporary work? I thought of the many directors and choreographers who feel obliged to explain their research in the programme booklet to ensure the audience follows their thoughts. Others, meanwhile, refuse to speak when asked by the audience what they'd like to convey in their work instead simply smiling or asking what the audience gets out of it. A few days after, a press relations officer in Lyon asked me to name my favourite performance. My reply was Defoort's and when I described the characteristics of the work, she noted that only the Belgians would be able to create a work like that. These days, as I drive home from work across the Thai-Belgian bridge in Bangkok, I think about "Germinal" and hope we'll get to experience more Belgian contemporary performance here in Thailand. It's also noteworthy that despite the nationality of the artists and the non-dance nature of the performance, "Germinal" was included in the Institut Francaise's "Dance Focus". This event allowed presenters, producers, cultural officers and journalists from all over the world to experience new creations in contemporary dance by French artists, as well as professionally connect with them, in one weekend. The writer's trip was supported by the French Embassy in Thailand, Institut Francaise and Biennale de la Danse Lyon. ON THE WEB ( 3/9

6 7/23/2014 Germinal Project Arts Centre Dublin Theatre Festival Review No More Workhorse No More Workhorse Appear highbrow without trying by reading Germinal Project Arts Centre Dublin Theatre Festival Review Take four people three men, one woman put them on a confined planet/strange world, have them uncover the rudiments of communication and the development of speech and music and you have Germinal, a French take on how language, thought and speech evolved. This will be one of the highlights of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Germinal is both profound and whimsical. By asking us to consider classification of objects, thought, what it means to be human, it asks some of the big questions. Germinal (not to be confused with the Zola novel) is a work by Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger that, in a French Philosophical vein, looks at the ascent of man as he evolves on the bare stage; an imagined Universe. Much of the opening is in silence leading this reviewer to wonder where this was going. But the short wait was worth it as the mime and silence gave way to sounds and the subtitles that tell us what s going on in the actors heads. 1/3

7 7/23/2014 Germinal Project Arts Centre Dublin Theatre Festival Review No More Workhorse The humour is never far from the (planet) surface. There s a riff on categorisation as to whether an object makes a poc-poc sound when hit by a mysterious other object (in this case, a microphone). Things are accordingly classed as either poc-poc or non-poc-poc. A laptop provides help to our pioneers as a manual, allowing them to set up a Windows swamp or forest. The four contact an inter-galactic Tele-sales woman who tries to convince them of the need for money as a concept and they re not buying it; like something from a Douglas Adams book in its comic absurdity. While pondering our relationship between technology and communication, we can enjoy the humour of the situation as our four explorers dig up what they can from the rubble of the planetary surface. There s great use of music the actors harmonise and, when you throw in an electric guitar, sound like an alien version of the Velvet Underground. The playwrights have said this is a visual piece of theatre and they didn t disappoint. They also, amazingly, say that the performers are not trained actors which makes the production even more remarkable. It was also a perfect half way Play between Gate-type productions and the Fringe. You leave the theatre uplifted, happy to have suspended belief for ninety minutes. You can t ask for more than that really. By Dan O Neill Dan writes on TV at tvreviewguy.blogspot.com and on Politics at danoneill.wordpress.com If your French is up to it, see below.: About No More Workhorse About these ads 2/3

8 7/23/2014 Irish Theatre Magazine Reviews Current Dublin Theatre Festival: Germinal Germinal by Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort as part of Dublin Theatre Festival by Fintan Walsh Reviewed 28 September Print This Page (#) Share This ( Light cuts through an otherwise blacked out set, fading in and out slowly. Given the deliberation, it s clear we re not just waiting for a show to start; we re being invited to reflect upon the technology of beginnings of theatre productions, of worlds. When the lights finally come up fully, we see they re being controlled by the four affectless performers who amble across the stage; looking a lot like nerdy techies who ve taken a wrong turn. They communicate telepathically, and soon discover they can project their thoughts onto the back wall via keyboards, which engenders a deft and comic classification exercise. Sounds, speech and rhythm follow. When a mic is uprooted from beneath the stage floor, the universe they create is readily separated into poc poc (the sound a mic makes when tapped) and not poc poc. Laptops, keyboards, headsets and microphones are not the only things that make up this world, but the theatre s raw materials are used too boards are cracked open and repurposed. At one point, when a Microsoft forest wallpaper is projected across the back wall, a tree makes an effort to push through the stage floor, as if the digital is effecting rather than just mediating the real world. Which comes first: the tree, the computer or the theatre? 2/4

9 7/23/2014 Irish Theatre Magazine Reviews Current Dublin Theatre Festival: Germinal The company seem to be exploring how theatre technology from stage materials to digital devices manufacture worlds on stage. And at the heart of this is the techie, an individual whose presence and labours are rarely seen. On another level, the performance highlights our compulsion to assign meaning and narrate: here this process feels both smart and absurd. Poc-poc/Not poc-poc: why didn t I think of that before? While the performers detached approach makes sense within the presentational style of the production, at times the performance needs a bit more carefully managed momentum, especially within the first 45 minutes. It might also have benefitted from and a greater diversity of scenarios which would have explored the boundaries between materiality and representation even further: by the time the four collapse in a pool they construct in the stage floor at the end of the performance, it feels like this theatre of beginnings hasn t worked quite hard enough to finish just yet. Given the rich initial ideas, you d be forgiven for expecting the show to go much further. But this doesn t detract from it being a smart, witty and stylish production: theatre about theatre, technology, and the world, that also manages to do something itself. Star rating: itm Print This Page (#) Share This ( Review Theatre Dublin Theatre Festival: Germinal by Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort September, 2013 Produced by Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort In Project Arts Centre Conceived by Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort Lighting and Video: Sébastien Bausseron Lighting Consultant: Annie Leuridan Technical Direction: Maël Teillant Sound: Robin Mignot Cast: Arnaud Boulogne, Ondine Cloez, Antoine Defoort, Halory Goerger & Mathilde Maillard (Hotline) Irish Theatre Magazine admin@irishtheatremagazine.ie The content of Irish Theatre Magazine and this web site is solely the opinion of the authors and not necessarily of the editors. 3/4

10 INTERVIEW WITH ANTOINE DEFOORT + HALORY GOERGER with antoine defoort halory goerger FTA AUDIENCES DISCOVERED YOU IN 2012 WITH &&&&& & &&&, A SHOW THAT OSCILLATED BETWEEN PERFORMANCE ART, AN EXHIBIT AND CABARET. THIS TIME ROUND WITH GERMINAL, YOU HAVE DELIBERATELY OPTED FOR THEATRE. What characterizes our approach is that every time we decide to take on a topic, regardless of what it is, we try to reinvent the wheel, to reclaim the theme. For Germinal we tried to understand how the machine that is theatre functions by questioning the foundations, the mechanics of theatre. Germinal is our first pure theatre experience, since for the first time the piece is based on a text. The fact that it takes place on a stage was not initially obvious, given that we continue to see ourselves as visual artists, conceptual artists who this time chose to focus on the medium of theatre as the favoured system of representation. Basically our approach is experimental, and some of our pieces are more or less accessible. This piece is based on a structure that makes it easy to grasp, for we never pursue a piece thematically. We never try to answer a single question but instead several questions at once, and to pose questions as well. Our main goal was to satisfy our taste for experimentation. IN GERMINAL YOU REINVENT THE UNIVERSE, NO LESS! HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO WORK WITH SUCH A VAST BASIC PREMISE? It was a crazy gamble. We imagined starting all over from scratch, organizing a finite universe consisting of only four people on an 8m by 10m stage. Those four people would grow and mature according to a somewhat Darwinian logic, like a theory of evolution pushed to the limit. We did not proceed by elimination or by positive selection. Instead we asked ourselves what we would like to see, then we determined what we were going to put onstage.

11 For example, we wanted to break the stage, literally break it abuse it, destroy it. We were looking for a somewhat brutal violence of form, of materiality. That came about right at the beginning, even before we began writing the piece. Onstage we explored the very beginnings of theatrical expression and then moved toward a more contemporary register: pantomime, language, vocalization, singing. How do you speak to an audience when you re onstage? We made the same discoveries that our ancestors did project the voice, don t turn your back to the audience, etc. Those discoveries nourished our approach. YOU HAVE MADE CHOICES, AND OF COURSE CANNOT INVENT EVERYTHING. WRITING, FOR EXAMPLE, ALREADY EXISTS. BEFORE ENGAGING IN VERBAL DIALOGUE, THE CHARACTERS COMMUNICATE BY MEANS OF DIALOGUE PROJECTED ONSTAGE. Writing precedes the actors because it exists on the stage, which will be their biotope. It is innate to them, it is part of nature. The ability to write comes from speech bubbles that are already part of the stage design. What does not yet exist is the ability to express oneself by means of phonation, which is why they invent speech. We created a sort of conceptual project specification manual, a list of rules necessary for the functioning of that universe, a conceptual bible that sets down very clear rules at times. Thus on the level of vocabulary, ours is fairly restrained. It has only a limited number of words and we often use the same phrases over and over. These people invent language, they invent a means of expression, but their idiom is quite limited. WHAT APPEARS LOGICAL TO YOU IS NOT NECESSARILY LOGICAL FOR THE SPECTATORS, WHICH NO DOUBT ACCOUNTS FOR THE HUMOUR OF YOUR PIECE. For reasons of theatricality, we are constantly breaking our own rules.

12 We wanted to maintain a simplicity of means, a lack of consistency at certain points. A proponent of potential literature and constrained writing once said that if the application of the formula was more boring that the formula itself, then make do with the formula. with antoine defoort halory goerger

13 Additional material: L'amicale's site for Germinal: The artists provide lists of topics and paradigms explored in Germinal, as well as internet research links used in the development of the piece. Germinal Trailer Indigence=Élégance: another Defoort & Goerger collaboration More projects: by Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger and others