Sound of Music

A propos:

I observe climate warming and signs of crisis, everywhere around us, and their impact on contemporary Western culture. Public services are being cut back, budgets are slashed, purchasing power and morale are in decline, feelings of guilt weigh heavily even on bright days. We know that we are the musicians on the Titanic, icy waters are already washing around our knees, but we keep on playing because we’ve learnt nothing else and don’t know what else to do.

I have the impression that people are less inclined nowadays to see plays, films or performances that force them to think, that remind them of how complex our reality is. Because it requires such an effort. People want spectacular, smoothflowing pieces, with plenty of special effects, something that is easy to consume. People want relief from their unease at least for a couple of hours. I myself don’t want to see any more pieces that hurt. I want virtuosity, beauty, technical fireworks. Performances that moved me in recent times were all of this kind. After the stock exchange crash in 1929, Anglo-Saxon musical comedy experienced a veritable boom. For the above-mentioned reasons.

«Kitsch, by its essence, is the absolute negation of shit», says Milan Kundera. And yet …

As a teenager, I performed in a cabaret. I loved and still love musical comedies, both on stage and on screen. I love the feelings they evoke, the sweet enchantment, the nauseous sleepiness. And so I want to create and produce one myself. With two, apparently contradictory targets:

There is no such thing as shit. A musical comedy that is spectacular, with technical bravado, with a clear storyline and a happy end, with well-shaped bodies and light effects. Because it’s beautiful. Because it does us good. Because, for a short while, we need to be able to let go of our roles as citizens of this world.
At the same time, the play should clearly say that being obtuse to what’s going on around us is disastrous. That we mustn’t close our eyes. That thinking about events and taking a stand is eminently important. That art which spotlights things is different from art which leaves us dazzled. So it’s about bringing some light into the bedazzlement in which we normally stagger through the comedies of the world. About showing up our existential fears, which a musical comedy usually placates or ignores. Deeply-held anxieties must seep through from all sides. After all, shit really does exist.

A pure nightmare that makes audiences happy.

Text: Yan Duyvendak
Translation: Martin Striegel

Distribution:
Conception and artistic direction: Yan Duyvendak
Artistic assistant: Nicolas Cilins
Texts: Christophe Fiat
Translation and adaptation to the english: Martin Striegel
Choreographies of All Right Good Night, Staying Afloat, Chinese Are On Tour, Rain Dance: Olivier Dubois
Choreographic assistant to Olivier Dubois and coach: Cyril Journet
Other choreographies: Michael Helland
Composition: Andrea Cera
Vocal coach: Sylvie Zahnd
Set designer: Sylvie Kleiber
Lighting designer: Vincent Millet
Costumes: Nicolas Fleury
Programming: Thomas Köppel

With musical dancers: Oliver Aagaard-Williams, Lisandra Bardél, Melanie Böhm, Tobias Brönner, Johannes Brüssau, Maria Einfeldt, Angelika Erlacher, Eveline Gorter, Jan Grossfeld, Sorina Kiefer, Sven Niemeyer, Nathalie Parsa, Mario Saccoccio, Martin Skriver

And guest dancers

Set construction: Atelier Théâtre de Vidy
General stage manager: Ludovic Guglielmazzi
Stage manager: Jean-Daniel Buri
Lighting director: Mathieu Wilmart
Sound directors: Ludovic Guglielmazzi, Aurélien Stuby

Production and management: Nataly Sugnaux Hernandez
Production: Samuel Antoine
Communication and administration: Marine Magnin

Web Compagnie: http://duyvendak.com/
Web Festival La Bâtie: https://batie.ch/


Note: dans cet album il y a, dans l'ordre, une répétition, la générale et la 2e représentation.