Métamorphoses Magic Show
cabaret/conference based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with additional texts by Michel Serres, Albert Jacquard and Pascal Quignard.
« Nothing / not the thoughts of mortals / nor the shining stars / nor the everlasting night / can understand the strange metamorphorsis.” Pascal Quignard
« All the earth is covered with water / Dolphins swim in the trees / Birds cannot find a branch to perch on / Everything dies / Everything, except for a man and a woman in a little boat / Deucalion and Pyrrah. / The water subsides / There they are just the two of them on the blasted plain / Alone / They would like to make the world live again / They really would like to, but they are not so young. / So they go and see the oracle / And the oracle says / “take your grandmother’s bones / and throw them behind you.” / What does that mean? / They took the oracle’s words / and turn them around inside themselves / “Our grandmother is the earth, and her bones are the stones” / So they take a few stones and throw them over their shoulders / and walk forwards. / The stones in the mud begin to change / and something starts to appear, like an unfinished statue / and then… / like a man, like a woman. / Since then, we are a hard race / and something is missing.”
Devised and adapted by : Kate France and Sylvie Reteuna with the collaboration of Marc Mérigot / Director : Sylvie Reteuna / Performers : Kate France and Marc Mérigot / Design and costumes ; Pierre-André Weitz / Music and sound design : Eric Sterenfeld (except « When I see Mommy I feel like a Mummy » Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band) / Lighting and technical director: Jean-Claude Fonkenel / Video: excerpts from the film Genesis by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou / Sound and stage manager: Pierre-Yves Aplincourt / Construction of the set and props: Florent Gallier, Bertrand Killy and Fabienne Killy / Costumes made by: Nathalie Bègue / Administration: Christine Tournecuillert – Conduite accompagné
Coproduction: La Sibylle (production déléguée), Le Théâtre Bretigny, Scène conventionnée du Val d’Orge, Le Grand Bleu, Etablissement national de production et de diffusion artistique à Lille, Le Vivat, scène conventionnée danse et théâtre d’Armentières / With the participation of: Centre André Malraux, Hazebrouk, Théâtre de Chelles / With the support of: Région Nord Pas-de-Calais / DRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais / Ministère de la culture et de la Communication / thanks to T2G, Théâtre de Gennevilliers and Théâtre de la Bastille for rehearsal spaces.
Tour dates: 14th to 18th November 2011 creation at Scène conventionnée du Val d’Orge, Le Grand Bleu, Etablissement national de production et de diffusion artistique à Lille / 6th December 2011, Vivat, scène conventionnée danse et théâtre d’Armentières / 20th January 2012, Centre André Malraux, Hazebrouk in the Festival Poil à gratter / 30th March 2012, Théâtre de Bretigny / 2nd and 4th April 2012, Théâtre de Chelles.
click to see film made to accompany the performance
photos © Christian Mathieu