The Ogres or Power makes joyful and tireless

First step

directed by Christiane Véricelproduction : Image Aiguë, Théâtre de la Renaissance - Oullins

Theatre in Music

Creation in residency at Théâtre de la Renaissance, Oullins (France) from March 22 to April 1st 2010

For touring from July 2010

contact : Nicolas Bertrand – +33 4 78 27 74 81 / +33 6 35 37 60 86 nbertrand@image-aigue.org

The Ogres or Power makes joyful and tireless

Artistic directionChristiane VéricelLightsMichel !euil Accessories and stage managementBruno Corona

PerformersSandrine De RosaFranck KayapFrédéric Périgaud et 6 enfants comédiensMusicianEstanislao Sanchez (bandoneon)

Puppets advisorJean SclavisPuppets craftingCompagnie Emilie Valantin

ProductionImage Aiguë Compagnie Christiane Véricel!éâtre de la Renaissance – Oullins

Image Aiguë is in convention with the french Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Région Rhône-Alpes

Duration : about 1hAudience : all audience (max 200 people) and young audience (from 7 years old) (max 150 people)

The Ogres or Power makes joyful and tireless

Christiane Véricel in her new creation will tell us about our childhood farrytale's monsters, keen on fresh flesh; and also blind, impatient, selfish, menacing ogres of our daily life. With professional performers and children actors, Véricel will explore myths and actuallity of the ogre. A humorous look at the insatiable, bulimics and those who lack everything. Stories to tell about the big conflicts and small wars, seeking a balance where everyone would find his place and what he needs.

#e shows come out from research sessions lead by Christiane Véricel with professional artists and children from diverse backgrounds, often foreigners, real artistic laboratories where differences are put into play to produce meaning with language and history of each. #is gives magnificent theatrical travel books, both humorous and meaningful when children are perceived for what they are : not small adults, but evolving beings, sensitive, complex and generous, whatever their horizon is.

« My glutton neighbor had the terrible look of a man who is unable to physically see something other than what he wants to swallow

- whether a portion of whipped cream or a country"

Klaus Mann, !e turning point

The Ogres or Power makes joyful and tireless

Creation on March 22nd 2010 at !éâtre de la Renaissance – Oullins, in the frame of Image Aiguë résidency in the Saulaie district.

First step, creation at !éâtre de la Renaissance – Oullins Grand Lyon• monday 22 march, 14h30• tuesday 23 march, 14h30• thursday 25 march, 14h30• friday 26 march, 19h• monday 29 march, 14h30• tuesday 30 march, 14h30• wednesday 31 march, 17h• thursday 1st april, 14h30

Tour conditions of Les Ogres (creation in Oullins) :• People on tour : 14 (3 actors, 1 musician, 6 children actors, 1 technician, 1 children-

chaperon, 1 director, 1 production manager)• Minimum size of the stage : 9m x 6m• Technical transportation : 20 m3

• Technical rider disponable on March 22nd 2010

Financial conditions on demand.

Contact :Nicolas BertrandImage Aiguë – 2, place des Terreaux 69001 Lyontél : +33 4 78 27 74 81 – +33 6 35 37 60 86nbertrand@image-aigue.org

The Ogres or Power makes joyful and tireless

Apart from Les Ogres performances, the Company may propose:• a tour of small pieces, extracts of the show performed in non-theatrical venues

before performances at the theater, • pedagogical actions with teachers on current topics (dietetics, power, hunger in the

world, the relation between mythes and actuality) which can be theater workshops, conversations, etc...

Les Ogres is an evolutive show which will be reinvented along Company's trips, during artistic research workshops and meetings in France, Europe and foreign countries. #e first step of the show may be programed as-is, we also search for co-producers for new creation' steps about current ogre's figures.

About ogres and other insatiable peopleInterview with Christiane Véricel, by Manuel Piolat Soleymat

What is the central idea of this creation ?#is new creation develops and deepens a topic underlined, in some ways, in my former shows, namely that of ogres, insatiable people and bulimics… I think I have always worked on the confrontation between characters that either have enough to eat or not. I am pretty convinced that hunger is connected to all the big human conflicts and world crisis. In the same way, I have often worked on the topic of immigration and of people looking for some place to live in the world. My performances deals with topical issues deeply rooted in reality and based on concrete and simple things; they are like communicating vases, showing the empty and the full.

Do you think that !e Ogres is the natural continuation of Ici Là-bas, your last creation?Absolutely. Each new creation is, in a way, the continuation of the previous one. Even if you can’t always see, at first sight, all the threads connecting my different creations to one another, they do exist, in a more or less underlying way.

In your performances, you try not to fall into manichaeism or didactics. Here, how did you handle the character of the ogre?We have tried to show all kinds of ogres: good ones, bad ones, nice ones, violent or funny ogres… It’s true that the current events of the past years have put a very crude light on all the greedy drifting of some firm leaders. But, in fact, this voracious and rigid way of looking at life has always existed. In our performances, it’s always important

for the company not to show too simple or limited realities. For me, the real stake is to put a subtle light on things, to tell vivid histories showing their entire complexity.

In this new creation, you also explore the idea of happiness. Is it, in your eyes, really intimately linked to the idea of voracity?#e first question that crosses your mind when you talk about voracity is often that of happiness. What are the ogres looking for? Do they only find happiness in absorbing or consuming? As you well know, we are mortal. So, in that case, I really wonder: what is the meaning of this constant need to accumulate as much as possible, always longing for more and more? What these frenzied “hamster-like” people can do with their booty. How far they really enjoy the enormous wealth they have accumulated, what seems to me purely impossible, in a life time, to do so? For this creation, I wished to do something, I’ve never done before: to ask children what happiness means to them. In fact, I got the chance to exchange letters with a class of Czech pupils. #e majority mentioned liberty, space, family and “freedom to do what they felt like doing”. Of course, others brought up wealth but just a few of them. #ere, I must admit one thing: I was pleased to see that for the majority of them, happiness didn’t mean to own a swimming pool.

Except for happiness, what are the other topics you have explored in !e Ogres?Actually, all the big ideas usually inherent to my performances. Symbolically expressed, problems, linked to food and territory, come from the necessity of surviving. It’s the idea

of the empty and the full, of privation and abundance, space and confinement and, last but not least, of accumulating. In that sense, the picture of boats loaded with boat-people is, in my point of view, really striking. I feel the same about the peasants in Amazonian or in the north-east of Brazil who have been roughly expelled out of their own territories or even about agriultural lands in Madagascar rented by corean industrial consortiums…I try, as I said previously, to have various approaches: I think of all the possible movements, all the variants creating the links between the empty and the full. And, of course, I love adding a spell of humour and derision to these stories. It’s my way to accentuate the pathetic of some attitudes and contrasts, without neglecting altogether the earnest and dramatic character of some of the stories.

In this new show, what his the space left to tale and myth? Many years ago, I worked a lot on the universe of fairy tales and myth. Of course, when I started creating “#e Ogres”, all the things I had already worked on came back to me. For the time being, I am more concerned and interested by the events linked to today’s actuality. However, when you create performances without a fixed text, as I do, you need to have inside you a rich and heterogeneous material where you draw

into as one goes along, according to the situations created with the comedians. For the time being, I don’t want to focus my work on tale or myth. So I led up the comedians to work around stories that directly concern today’s world. Nevertheless, when you start a research with the ogre as a topic, it’s difficult to totally ignore these two fields of references, myth and reality. #us, as the working sessions went on, and when I thought it was right to do so, I nourished what appeared on stage with visions and symbols related to the tale.

In your creations you rest as much on your imaginary as that of the comedians involved…Yes, indeed. All our imaginary worlds oppose themselves and become richer. #is brings our creations to reflect the identity and wishes of each of us. Each member of the group is in turn performer and spectator of the performance, which leads to extremely rich exchanges based on the idea of pleasure. As for me, pleasure and theatre are intimately linked: if there is no pleasure, there is no theatre. And as a stage director, it’s my role to make sure that this pleasure will be shared by the audience, without ever calling into question our artistic demand. I want to target a very large audience, like our performances usually do: a mixed audience from a social, cultural and generation point of view.

The Ogres or Power makes joyful and tireless

photos : Research workshops, Oullins, december 2009

Images and more information :

http://image-aigue.org/en/professional-space

ContactNicolas Bertrand

Image Aiguë – 2, place des Terreaux 69001 Lyontél : 04 78 27 74 81 – 06 35 37 60 86

nbertrand@image-aigue.org

illustration : Łukasz Rayski

(Image Aiguë – january 2010)