A lamentation for what we have forgotten
In « Lessons of Darkness », four bodies become the mouthpieces of stories that have been forgotten or that we have tried to wipe out. They are straddled by forces that bind them together and shake their chests. They inflate and deflate, give blows, indure the impacts.
These people dig with their bodies curved, bent over until the invisible emerges. They transform and metamorphose themselves sometimes until they disappear. In turn, they challenge, testify, help, protect, support and make visions appear. They have fears to share, images to blur, masks to assemble, fires to summon...
« Lessons of Darkness » is a liturgical musical genre of the XVIIth century that sets to music extracts of the Lamentations of Jeremiah text which cries the destruction of Jerusalem. It is also the title of a film directed by Werner Herzog in 1992 about the burning of 732 oil wells by Iraqi forces withdrawing from Kuwait. In it, the director presents a vision of apocalypse as a long poem about the end of the Earth.
Betty Tchomanga's « Lessons of Darkness » also mourn the destruction of the world and the Earth. They speak of Darkness and from Darkness, to explore the obscure, our hidden and buried stories.
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Conception: Betty Tchomanga.
Performance: Betty Tchomanga, Amparo Gonzalez Sola, Léonard Jean-Baptiste and Zoé Jaffry (taking turns with Balkis Mercier Berger).
Artistic assistant Emma Tricard.
Sound design Stéphane Monteiro.
Musical collaboration Mackenzy Bergile, Folly Azaman.
Light design Eduardo Abdala.
Scenography Eduardo Abdala, Émilie Godreuil and Betty Tchomanga.
Costume design: Betty Tchomanga in collaboration with Marino Marchand.
Bead creation: Love Aziakou, Jacqueline Houessinon.
General and stage management: Emilie Godreuil.
External view: Dalila Khatir.
Vocal coaches: Dalila Khatir and Viviane Marc.
Stage technician: Bruno Roudaut.
Recorded voices: Folly Azaman, Fortuné Agossa.
Production and distribution: Aoza – Marion Cachan.
Acknowledgements to: the technical team of Quartz, Vincent Blouch.
Production: Association Lola Gatt.
Coproduction: Le Quartz, scène nationale de Brest, Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen, dans le cadre de l'accueil-studio, Centre chorégraphique National d'Orléans - Direction Maud Le Pladec dans le cadre de l'accueil-studio, Le Pacifique - CDCN de Grenoble, Les Hivernales - CDCN d'Avignon, Théâtre de Vanves, Le Triangle - Cité de la danse de Rennes, Coopération Nantes-Rennes-Brest-Rouen - Itinéraires d'Artiste[s], wpZimmer - Anvers - Belgique, Les Subsistances, Lyon, Be My Guest - Réseau international pour les pratiques émergentes.
With the support of: Gessnerallee - Zürich - Suisse, Le Centre - Cotonou - Bénin, Kunstencentrum BUDA, Courtrai, Belgique, Spectacle Vivant en Bretagne.
Mecenas: SARL SICC Saint-André-de-Cubzac.
With financial support of: de la DRAC Bretagne, de la Région Bretagne, du Département du Finistère, de la Ville de Brest, de l'Institut Français et de la Caisse des Dépôts.
