THE PERFORMANCE
“My grandfather was a sailor. He had a naked woman tattooed on his upper arm, and I remember him as a smell of tar and tobacco. He came from an island on the west-coast of Norway, a tiny harbor filled with foreign ships and languages, fishermen, sailors and children waiting for fathers who never came home from the sea. A landscape of wind, vast ocean and women standing looking out at the horizon. Weathered faces, sore hands and churches with boats hanging from the ceiling in hope of protection. My ancestors were buried in Portuguese soil, because the churchyard on this island didn’t have enough earth to bury their own dead. I like how the sea somehow draws invisible lines between the different corners of the world, how it creates points of connection. How, facing this force of nature, we are all the same. And no-one captures the battle between man and nature like Herman Melville in Moby Dick. An ancient white whale, a captain steering his ship into destruction and the inner storms of the human heart. Moby Dick is the tale of a whaling expedition, but also the story of an obsession or an investigation into the unexplained mysteries of life. To quote Melville: “It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.”
So, with seven actors, fifty puppets, video-projections, a drowned orchestra and a whale-sized whale, I am currently working on a visual adaptation of this wonderful beast of a book."
Yngvild Aspeli
PRESSE
« (...I)t is impossible to ruin with mere description the experience of the French-Norwegian company Plexus Polaire’s exquisite “Moby Dick,” a large-scale puppet adaptation of the Herman Melville classic. From its first moment on the vast N.Y.U. Skirball stage, when glittering fish appear, their tails swishing in the darkness, the wondrousness of this show lies in its spectacle and ambience.
Directed by Yngvild Aspeli, this is serious artistry, with 50 puppets (many life-size, others Lilliputian or gargantuan), seven actor-puppeteers and three musicians whose underscore modulates the mood as deftly as the intricate lighting (by Xavier Lescat and Vincent Loubière) and beguiling video (by David Lejard-Ruffet). »
« I’ve never seen anything like this show, and I don’t imagine I will again until Plexus Polaire returns to Canada. The combination of filmic techniques, astonishing puppetry and clever stagecraft turned Moby Dick into an unforgettable experience that I will be thinking about for a very long time. This is the art of theatre at its finest, and I must say again — it is pure magic. »
« (...H)ow would a puppet show tackle Herman Melville’s leviathan with a mere 88-minute running time? The answer? Spectacularly. (...)
Plexus Polaire’s Moby Dick was a celebration of pure artistry and a demonstration of the magic of puppetry. It is perhaps not enough to say that the puppets were lifelike—Plexus Polaire’s 50-something puppets that present about an hour and a half of Moby Dick were not a mimicry of organic life. They were a suspension of life—the creation of an alternate, watery, and spectacular reality. (...)
The boundary between illusion and reality becomes increasingly blurred. Wave-like shadows accompanied by the ghostly outline of a whale’s tail blend puppet and projection to create an atmosphere of awe. »
CREATIVE TEAM
Director – Yngvild Aspeli
Actors and puppeteers – Pierre Devérines, Sarah Lascar, Daniel Collados, Alice Chéné, Viktor Lukawski, Maja Kunsic, Andreu Martinez Costa.
Alternating with Alexandre Pallu, Vera Rozanova, Yann Claudel, Olmo Hidalgo, Cristina Iosif, Scott Koehler, Laëtitia Labre.
Music – Guro Skumsnes Moe, Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen and Havard Skaset
Alternating with Lou Renaud-Bailly, Georgia Wartel Collins et Emil Storløkken Åse
Puppet makers – Polina Borisova, Yngvild Aspeli, Manon Dublanc, Sébastien Puech, Elise Nicod
Scenography – Elisabeth Holager Lund
Light Designer – Xavier Lescat and Vincent Loubière
Video Designer – David Lejard-Ruffet
Costume Designer - Benjamin Moreau
Light Technicians - Vincent Loubière or Marine David
Video Technicians - Hugo Masson, Pierre Hubert or Emilie Delforce
Sound Technicians - Raphaël Barani, Simon Masson or Damien Ory
Stage Technicians : Benjamin Dupuis, Xavier Lescat or Margot Boche
Assistant director (on tour) - Benoît Seguin
Assistant director (creation) – Pierre Tual
Dramaturg – Pauline Thimonnier
Production Director and Tour Booking - Claire Costa
Administration - Anne-Laure Doucet and Gaedig Bonabesse
Producer - Noémie Jorez
Touring Info : Claire Costa clairecosta@plexuspolaire.com
COPRODUCTIONS
Nordland Teater, Mo I Rana (NO) - Figurteatret i Nordland (Nordland Visual Theatre), Stamsund (NO) - Groupe des 20 Theatres en Ile-de-France (IDF) - Puppet Theatre Ljubljana (SL) - Puppenteater Halle (DE) - Comédie de Caen CDN (14-FR) - EPCC Bords 2 scènes, Vitry-le-François (51-FR) -TJP CDN Strasbourg- Grand Est (67-FR) - Festival Mondial des théâtres de Marionnettes de Charleville-Mézières (08-FR) - Le Manège, Scène Nationale - Reims (51-FR) - Le Théâtre – Scène conventionnée d’Auxerre (89-FR) - Le Mouffetard, Théâtre des arts de la Marionnette, Paris (75-FR) - Les 2 Scènes, Scène Nationale de Besançon (25-FR) - MA scène nationale - Pays de Montbéliard (25-FR) - Le Sablier, Ifs (14-FR) - Le Théâtre Jean Arp de Clamart (92-FR), La Maison/Nevers scène conventionnée Art en territoire, Nevers (58-FR) - Théâtre Romain Rolland, scène conventionnée d’intérêt national de Villejuif (94-FR) - Le Bateau Feu, Scène nationale de Dunkerque (59-FR) - With a support for multilingual diversity by Theatre de Choisy-le- Roi/Scène Conventionnée d’intérêt national art et création pour la diversité linguistique, in cooperation with PANTHEA (FR-94), Teater Innlandet, Hamar (NO), POC, Alfortville (94-FR)
Supports : Kulturrådet / Arts Council Norway (NO), DGCA Ministère de la Culture (FR), DRAC et Région Bourgogne franche Comté (FR), Fond for lyd og bilde (NO), Conseil Général du Val de Marne (FR), Département de l’Yonne (FR), La Nef Manufacture d'utopies, Pantin (93-FR).
