The latest creation of Gisèle Vienne casts a doubt on the way in which we perceive and interpret the world. She places two silent persons – a dancer and a boy – in a nightmare that takes shape by pulsating light, sound and music. Together they try to escape the gruesome story that is written for them. Vienne transforms choreographic abstraction into a tableau vivant, which develops into a theatrical narrative, from story to reality. The Pyre plays a fascinating game that challenges our senses and our sense of interpretation. The American author Dennis Cooper wrote texts for the performance. The Cultural Press Bureau calls The Pyre “a tense, unsettling performance” and “an overwhelming piece that leaves the spectator dizzy. “ And the Theaterkrant writes “ The performance provokes the senses like a drug, as pleasant as disagreeable. The excess of form irritates and fascinates. If you surrender, you’re sucked in. It’s a trip, a superaesthetic , hallucinating bad trip with an ultramodern and ingenious light plan as a purgatory.” Balancing on the boundaries of theatre, dance, puppet show and visual arts, the French-Austrian theatre maker Gisèle Vienne confronts her audience again and again with the human fascination for the terrifying and the threatening.
COREALISATION WITH Opéra de Lille / CONCEPTION, DIRECTING, CHOREOGRAPHY AND SCENOGRAPHY Gisèle Vienne / MUSIC WRITTEN BY, LIVE PERFORMANCE AND DIFFUSION KTL (Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg) / Except Black Eyed Dog by Nick Drake (from the album Made To Love Magic)* / TEXT Dennis Cooper / LIGHTS Patrick Riou / VIDEO Gisèle Vienne and Patrick Riou in collaboration with Robin Kobrynski / PERFORMED BY AND CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH Anja Röttgerkamp and alternately with Lounès Pezet, Léon Rubbens or Kamiel Van Looy With the voice of Dennis Cooper / COSTUMES José Enrique Ona Selfa / MAKEUP Mélanie Gerbeaux / SOUND SPATIALIZATION Manuel Poletti / SET CONCEPTION LEDS Designgroup Professional GmbH / LED Lightdesign Producer / OTHER SET’S ELEMENT Espace et Cie / P.O.L publisher made this special edition of The Pyre for this show / TECHNICAL COORDINATION team of Opéra de Lille / COLLABORATION COMPUTER IRCAM Thomas Goepfer / TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT Richard Pierre / SOUND & LIGHT COORDINATION Gérard d’Elia / LIGHT COORDINATION Patrick Riou / STAGE MANAGEMENT David Jourdain / CONCEPTION PLANS 3D Rémi Brabis / ASSISTANCE SCENOGRAPHIC RESEARCH Marc Le Hingrat / INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION ALMA OFFICE (BRUXELLES) Anne-Lise Gobin and Alix Sarrade / ADMINISTRATION AND PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION IN FRANCE PLATÔ (Séverine Péan, Carine Hilly and Julie Le Gall) /
*Written by Nick Drake, Produced by Joe Boyd and John Wood, Published by Warlock Music Ltd. Copyright 2004 Universal Island Records Ltd. A Universal Music Company / “For Jonathan and Jean-Luc” / EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DACM /COPRODUCERS Opéra de Lille / Le Parvis, Scène Nationale Tarbes Pyrénées / IRCAM et Les Spectacles Vivants- Centre Pompidou, dans le cadre du Festival Manifeste 2013 / La Comédie de Caen, Centre Dramatique National de Normandie / Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy et La Bâtie - Festival de Genève dans le cadre du projet PACT bénéficiaire du FEDER avec le programme INTERREG IV A France-Suisse / Arts 276- Automne en Normandie / Scène nationale d’Evreux / Centre de Développement Chorégraphique Toulouse-Midi-Pyrénées (accueil en résidence) / Centre Dramatique National Orléans Loiret Centre / Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans/ Le Maillon, théâtre de Strasbourg-Scène européenne / Pôle Sud, scène conventionnée pour la danse à Strasbourg/ Malta Festival Poznan 2013/ Holland Festival - Amsterdam / International Summer Festival - Hambourg / Künstlerhaus Mousonturm – Francfort / Festival NEXT (Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai + Valenciennes) / BIT Teatergarasjen – Bergen / House of Fire, with the support of programm culture from the Union européenne /IDEOLOGIC ORGAN (FR)/ Designgroup Professional GmbH / SUPPORT TO THE CREATION Festival Actoral / WITH THE SUPPORT OF DICRéAM / Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication / Within the framework of the project TRANSFABRIK. « TRANSFABRIK has been initiated by l’Institut Français in collaboration with the Goethe Institut and with the support of Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication et de l’OFAJ. With the support of Total and of SACD. Within the Framework of l´Année franco-allemande - cinquantenaire du Traité de l’Elysée. »
IN COLLABORATION WITH A House on Fire co-production with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union / THANKS TO La Monnaie/De Munt (Brussels) and to Kaaitheater (Brussels) for putting their rehearsal studios at our disposal and Anne Mousselet, Jonathan Capdevielle, Nicolas Herlin, Alexandre Vienne and to Bureau Cassiopée for the production work during the season 2011/2012. / PREMIÈRE Centre George Pompidou – Paris on 29, 30, 31 May, 1 June 2013, followed by a tour in 2013 and 2014 / Gisèle Vienne is associated artist at Parvis, Scène nationale de Tarbes Pyrénées since 2012 / The company DACM is supported by DRAC Rhône-Alpes / Ministère de la culture et de la communication, by Région Rhône-Alpes, and by Institut Français for international tour
