A notre insu , Michel Laubu , Turak

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Turak / Michel Laubu /

Music by Rodolphe Burger

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Theatre of objects

Performances 2-13 December 2008 at 8pm (no performances on the 7 & 8)

Falling knives, disappearances, clues everywhere: A notre insu is built like a detective story, a reconstruction of facts where spectators become witnesses or even suspects. This world of suspense however is not anxiety-ridden. Michel Laubu has a special affection for this little world of the island or the neighbourhood, for its old faces and their old habits, and their collection of old pans and tablecloths. He continues his work with Rodolphe Burger who wrote a piece of music for each clue. On stage, puppets, actors and musicians help us marvel while entangling the web of our little personal crimes.

“We have fun shifting, moving, and watching how images are created. I think that’s why I like the theatre of objects: you can write outside the box and show your tools.” Michel Laubu

See flyer (pdf in french/228kb)

See poster (pdf in french/596kb)

See press book (pdf in french/588kb)

See synopsis (pdf in french/40kb)

See teaching aids (pdf in french/712kb)

Social Events - Before and after the show.

Installation/Exhibition "Appartement en chantier"

Every piece of furniture is a link with a visual, acoustic and motorised installation, which sets off an imaginary group of people. It is like a venue designed for besieged electric guitars (seven chairs, with electric guitars attached to the chairs, and windscreen wipers motors and kitchen knives, which bang, rub, and make the guitar strings sing...)

What can you tell us about A notre insu?

Michel Laubu: We are following our usual pattern of collecting objects and drawings like archaeologists, but we are also currently developing a more specific aspect to this particular work. It is like leading a police investigation: there is evidence to collect, and presumptions of innocence... This show will by the sequel to the autobiographical adventure started in Intimae, where I mentioned an island in the Moselle region. The more I work on this place, the more I learn to like it. The starting point is a fictional island renamed “The Island of the Stabbed”, because one day the inhabitants are all found lying on the ground with a kitchen knife stuck in their back. We know for a fact that no-one has left the island, they are therefore all victims and suspects. It evokes the people of the Moselle region when the mineshafts were closed down: a population stabbed to death. All of sudden they were struck by knives coming out the blue which pinned them all down. Often, my work develops in a rather naive way, and I only build and understand things afterwards. In this case, I have realised quickly where I was going with it. Because of industrial development, my grandparents on my mother’s side came form ex-Yugoslavia in terrible conditions in order to work in coalmines. Later, the mines were closed and they were left there. They were not needed anymore, so they were abandoned. I think unconsciously, I felt like talking about that.

How does the police investigation evolve?

ML: There are four houses on this island, for which I took my inspiration from people living in the four neighbouring houses to my parents: Mr and Mrs Schlichter, Mr Kieffer, Ms Héléna. Following the basic thread of a police investigation, we will reconstruct what happened ten minutes before the crime to try to find a lead but only wrong tracks will appear. The characters keep handling the kitchen knives, but danger is coming from another source, and they don’t feel it coming. This reconstruction will take place four times, with the same ten-minute period seen in each house.

This is the first time you tackle a narrative, isn’t it?

ML: Yes, and it allows me to stay within the text, it is like an exercise for me. It teaches me how to tell a story, give out clues. I like this elliptical side, it’s like a maze. There is also an entertaining side to reconstructions, as we work with puppets. At the end of the day, all our shows are reconstructions. We have fun shifting, moving, and watching how images are created. In the theatre of objects, we try to think outside the square in the story: the audience sees what allows us to tell the story, and this in turn tells other stories. Clouds are made of bits of wool. The bit of wool is held by an old pair of adjustable pliers and poetry is born out of this wool and these old pliers. I think that’s why I like the theatre of objects: you can write outside the box and show your tools.

Tell us about the music...

ML: Rodolphe Burger wrote it. It is a “noir” opera, as in a noir novel or a “gueule noire” (“black faces”, aka coalminers). The story is intrinsically linked with the music: the music is not written for the show, it precedes it. The actors must find their way in, examine and use this music like a piece of evidence. Rodolphe wrote four ten-minute tracks for each of the four reconstructions. He won’t be able to be there physically on stage with us, so we imagined a soundtrack with two musicians who play live in response to the recording. Four soundtracks have been created to convey the atmosphere in each house. Burger created four sound events which take place at exactly the same moment on each track. The actors will have to work around this.

Doesn’t this mean a lot of constraints for the actors?

ML: Yes, there are constraints.. and uncertainties as well, but those are very accurately defined. Everything used to be being written together with the actors on stage. The first day of rehearsals, nothing was set in stone. The fixed framework we now have is a new way of writing.

Parcours

Michel Laubu is the official guide to Turakie, as well as the ethnologist, linguist, and archaeologist of this country, while remaining throughout an artist. He invented a theatre mixing puppeteering and a theatre of objects. From his first show, the Turak native lays down his vision of a theatre filled to the rim with a rare imagination. For a few years now, Michel Laubu has been examining the renewal of theatrical devices. He stated his wish to develop new fields of writing, new tools that make it possible for the theatre of objects to keep its intimate quality while developing forms with a greater scope. What is of particular interest to Michel Laubu in the work with puppets is the outline of the puppeteer standing behind, the shadow of the person who holds and moves the object. Actors/Puppeteers are one with their creations and you can admire the coordination of their movements, the skill and grace they show, the way poetry and magic shoot out from almost anything in their art.

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Distribution

Writer, director, stage designer: Michel Laubu With the help of Emili Hufnagel.

Performed by Actors / Laurent Bastide, Carlo Bondi, Henri Bruère-Dawson, Jean-Pierre Hollebecq; Actors- musicians / Frédéric Roudet, Laurent Vichard.

Characters and set built by Emmeline Beaussier, Charly Frénéa.

Music by Rodolphe Burger, with the participation of Marco De Oliveira.

Lighting, sound and Stage Manager: TBC.

Production: Turak Théâtre.

Co-production & Residence: Les Subsistances / Lyon / France.

Production: Turak Théâtre.

Coproduced by Le Volcan - Scène nationale du Havre, La Comédie de Béthune - Centre Dramatique National, Le Bateau Feu – Scène nationale de Dunkerque, L’Allan – Scène nationale de Montbéliard.

Production in residence: Les Subsistances / Lyon / France, L’Allan - Scène nationale de Montbéliard.

With the support of: ADAMI and CNT - aide à la création - (application pending).

Turak Théâtre is subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, DRAC Rhône-Alpes and Région Rhône-Alpes.

Turak is also funded by Ville de Lyon and regularly receives support from Culturesfrance for its foreign projects.