Heidi Trautmann

June 1 - 6 - French Turkish Cultural Centre - Theatre project
6/2/2009

There was a lot of information on this project, so I include them all. I think it is very interesting. Heidi

 

The project "Duo for a Wall"

 

April in 2009 will be the starting point of a world tour for the company Ainsi de Suite. Our company of actors and technicians from four different continents will journey to Palestine, Israel, Korea, Cyprus, Mexico, the United States and Berlin in order to present a play that has for its only decor the walls that separate, humiliate and crush the last chance of peace between peoples by playing a game of extremes.

Devised around notions of physical theatre and sound, this project, “Duo Pour Un Mur” envisions as part of its goal a few weeks before its performance to collaborate with local artists (dancers, musicians, actors, painters, photographers, and filmmakers...on both sides of the “wall”) in order to reach a public of all ages and persuasions without any problems of readability or understanding.

It is in this way that each stage of our meetings across the world will constitute the cutting stone for an ever-evolving performance until November 9, 2009 when we reach Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall : a memory that must not let us forget the depressing structures of the builders of the 21st century.

A film featuring how this project affects the understanding and vision of participating actors possibly along with a recorded performance will be presented and will serve as the point of departure for debate after November 28, 2009 in other countries around the world that, saved from these cement structures, are victims of another kind of construction : virtual walls more and more widespread and no less shameful.

Given that the objective of this project is above all to open up a dialogue on a subject rarely discussed (how many among us are capable of reciting the long list of these “Walls of Peace”?), this project under no circumstances has to do with criticizing Israelis, Americans or creating controversy—but creating a genuine exchange of ideas, of understanding, of informing as well as being informed, of being changed as well as, on our small scale, creating change. In short, we anticipate creating a wall through a performance that, of necessity, must rise above in order to maybe shout and certainly to laugh...together.

 

Duo for a wall (French text see below)

 

By the theatre « Ainsi de suite » with Claude Pelopidas and Sophie Durteste

On Saturday June 6, 20 :30 at the Arabahmet Theatre

 

The protagonist of this play wakes up one morning to find himself at the bottom of a wall, a wall which is unsurmountable, incomprehensible and indestructible. What is there to do ? Should one ignore it or  fling oneself against it, strike at it, hurt oneself and perhaps die ? And if he would make fun of it, laugh at it, or make it talk, sing or dance ? What if he would make use of the shadow he throws to play a round of tennis, where the sound of the ball hitting the wall is like an explosion but resolving in a shower of laughter. Can one master a piece of concrete ? Should we not first know about the other side of the wall and the others who live there ?

The two actors understand to keep a poetic balance between drama and comedy, tragedy and banality. The play does not need many words but is rich in mimicry and body language and it is not essential to understand French.

 

From June 1 – 7 there is an exhibition of photos on walls in different places in the world (Palastina, Morocco, Meico) will underline this theatre project in the hall of the Municipalitybuilding at the end of Ledra Street in Nicosia South… 2 steps away from our wall.

 

 

              THEATRE

 

 

« Duo pour un mur »

par le Théâtre  « Ainsi de suite », avec Claude Pelopidas et Sohie Durteste

 

  Samedi 6 juin, 20h30 – Nicosie, Théâtre Arabhamet

                 

A son réveil, le personnage principal de cette pièce se retrouve au pied d’un mur incontournable, insurmontable, incompréhensible et injurieux. Que peut-il faire ? Faut-il faire semblant de l’ignorer ou bien faire le choix de s’y heurter, s’y cogner, s’y blesser, y mourir ? Et s’il en jouait, en riait, et du haut de son impuissance le faisait parler, chanter, danser ? S’il en profitait pour défier son ombre adossée à la pierre, dans un match de tennis où le son des balles finira peu à peu par prendre l’allure d’obus, pour finalement aboutir à un bel éclat… de rire ? Mais peut-on apprivoiser le béton ? Ne faut-il pas alors envisager le passage et la rencontre, de l’autre côté du mur enfin et, peut-être, de l’autre côté des autres ? Il finit donc par franchir l’infranchissable, pour y découvrir…

Ce duo d’acteurs sait établir un subtil équilibre poétique entre drame et comédie, tragédie et banalité. Le spectacle, économe en parole mais non en gestuelle, ne nécessite pas la compréhension du français.

Une exposition de photographies des différents murs que l’on trouve dans le monde (Palestine, Maroc, Mexique) devrait accompagner ce projet du 1er au 7 juin dans la salle municipale se trouvant au bout de la rue Ledra à Nicosie, …à deux pas du mur.

 

                                                              

                                                              

“Duo for a Wall”

By Claude Pelopidas

 

Saturday the 6th of June, 2009, at 9:00 PM

Arabahmet Cultural Centre , Nicosia

www.ainsidesuite.com

 

About Us:

 

 From putting on“The Wedding” by Chekov, to “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, even “A Special Day” by Ettore Scola, and “Death and the Maiden”, by Ariel Dorfman- the company Ainsi de Suite, in over ten countries, has succeeded in finding a regular audience, made up of a diverse population, by its style of staging- original work on the lighting and sound, as well as on the acting, responds to cinematic conventions.

 

Created in 1993, Ainsi de Suite occupies one of the prettiest sites in Aix-en-Provence, the town house of Maynier of Oppède, which also houses the Institute of French Studies for foreign students, as well as being one of the stages for the International Festival of Lyric Art. 160 students, representing about 10 nationalities, take theater classes here each year.

 

 

Claude Pelopidas -------------- Actor and mise en scène

 

Sophie Durteste ------------------ Interpretation and alto

 

Vincent Delpech ---------------------------     Sound design and reportage

Jean-Louis Alessandra---------------------    Light and design

 

Maya Collombon --------------------------      Video design

 

Alexandra Novosseloff  et Franck Neisse     Photography

 

Argyro Tomazou-------------------------           Event Organizer

 

Joël Rumello-------------------------------           Reportage   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Work:

 

            The Character:

“Duo for a Wall” was born out of the story of a character who brings us into a world where words have given over their place to sounds. Everything that he touches becomes what he is. He plays violin with an antenna in the guise of an archer, soothes himself with the sounds of the ocean, listening to his glass, makes a lion that he tames in an arena out of his radio. He is alone, but ends up making a duet, between himself and his dreams.

 

In “Duo for a Wall”, this character invites us, at last, to leave our metro station, to find ourselves in the great day- in front of, or against a wall on which he draws the reverberating craziness of his latest written work, reluctantly written on a too-grey partition of a concrete wall. His universe against a wall certainly promises some fragments of life, tagged forever in the conscience of “troublemakers”. Even one more time, even millions of kilometers away, and in the original version, this story already resembles, again and always, their own…and our own.

 

 

 

            Summary:

This story begins with a dream projected onto a wall. From the deepest part of his sleep, the dreamer finds himself in 20,000 elevated places on Earth, there where the most imposing ramparts have the allure of ridiculous fences. Upon waking up, he finds himself at the base of a wall, which is incontrovertible, incomprehensible, and hurtful. What can he do? Must he pretend to ignore it, or choose to strike it, bang against it, hurt himself against it, and die? What if he played with it, laughed, and at the summit of his impotence makes it sing, speak, and dance? If he makes the most of it by defying his shadow that leans on the rock, in a tennis match, or if the sound of the ball eventually finishes by sounding like a shell, finally succeeded by a burst of…laughter. If, like with a balloon, he plays with this chase who encircles him when he approaches too closely. Et if, at each gesture, he lets happen the unattended, whether auditory or visual, by the simple power of a man inviting us to share his universe? But can we tame a pile of concrete? Isn’t it necessary to envisage the passage and the meeting, finally on the other side of the wall, and maybe on the other side of other people? Thus, he finishes by crossing the impassable to discover it.

 

 

Press:

 

“Ainsi de Suite offers theater which makes us rediscover life, by the dream, the derision, and the comedy.”

            -The newspaper of the Alliance Française of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

 

“They make us laugh, move us, distract us, and force us to reflect. And by their staging, economic in words but not in gesture, they introduce a subtle equilibrium in the heart of the piece between comedy and drama, between the banal and the tragic…a moment of pure poetry.”

            F.M. Le Marseillaise

 

“Between drama and comedy, the performance unfurls, without artifice, but with justice… a tender duo for a poetic furor…To see.”

            J.D, La Provence

 

“In these times of closing off, of institutionalization, of segregation, this play comes at just the right time. It is at once an invitation to reflect, to a reverie, but equally to engagement. In our world of today, the imperialist and colonial, walls, the nationalistic confinements, the social, economic, and political barriers form an army. Europe builds its citadel, the United States their barrier, the separations between cultures and religions are established scientifically, despotic regimes restrict and lock up people. Faced with all this, this play convinces us to think beyond simply the materiality of the wall in our own heads… Knowledge is perhaps already a mark of hope.”

            Attariq Aljadid, a Tunisian newspaper

 

 

THE PARTNERS

 

l  Le CREJMO  (Larnaca)



l 

 

l  Centre Culturel Français de Nicosie (Chypre)

       www.cccl.org.cy

 

 

l  Avocats sans Frontières (France)
www.avocatssansfrontieres-france.org















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