Notre besoin de consolation (2010)
Direction Julie Berès
Script, dramaturgy, texts Julie Berès, Elsa Dourdet, Nicolas Richard, David Wahl
Sound design David Ségalen
Lighting design Hugo Oudin
Video creation Christian Archambeau
Set design Mathias Baudry assisted by Camille Riquier
Choreography Lucas Manganelli
Plastician Juliette Barbier
Costumes Aurore Thibout
Wigs Nathalie Régior
Clone sculptures Alain Fenet
Clone painting Marguerite Bordat
Technical direction Nicolas Minssen
Created and performed by Virginie Frémaux, Eric Laguigné, Mike Hayford, Agnès Joessel
Executive Producer Espace des Arts, scène nationale de Chalon-sur-Saône
Coproduction Cie Les Cambrioleurs – Le Quartz, scène nationale de Brest – Le-Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – La Brèche, centre des Arts du Cirque de Cherbourg-Octeville – L’Hexagone, scène nationale de Meylan – Théâtre de l’Onde, Espace Culturel de Vélizy-Villacoublay – Arcadi (Regional Action for creation and touring in Île-de-France)
With support from Le Granit, scène nationale de Belfort – Théâtre Romain Rolland de Villejuif – EPPGHV, Parc de la Villette – La Maison du Théâtre-Brest
With support for creation from the Conseil Général of Finistère and the Conseil Général of the Val-de-Marne. This piece received production and touring support from the SACD Théâtre
Production Fund, technical delegate Quartz, scène nationale de Brest / World premiere at Le Quartz, October 5, 2010
Based on research into contemporary issues involving bio-ethics, Notre besoin de consolation examines the landscape of “mutant humanity,” as it is shaped by current and future science. Genetic manipulation, cloning and IVF already offer opportunities for controlled, custom – calibrated reproduction; research on the aging of cells and the mechanism for stopping or slowing that process is bringing us closer and closer to the prospect of immortality.
What happens to a body à la carte, a body which we can improve, transform, rent, buy, fabricate, carrying inside itself the reality of our obsession to always “get more”? Using interviews and documentary materials which create a terrifying timeline of the relationship between the living and the artificial, Julie Berès gives us a remarkable overview of this mutant humanity: the demultiplied figure of one of the characters, the appearance of monstrous prostheses, malleable, flexible materials which suggest a universe in which constant metamorphosis becomes the rule.
DATES
“A true contemporary theatre piece, pulled from today’s world and led by a passionate artist who airily renders obsolete the majority of other working directors!”
Le Petit Bulletin, Aurélien Martinez, October 20, 2010
“The writer-director Julie Berès, a fine observer of the mutations of the social body, highlights this Besoin de consolation (Need for consolation) which pushes contemporary Man to deny his mortality, to refuse all imperfection which might occur in his cycle of life. […] In the art of Julie Berès, everything (lighting, sound, words, bodies) is language.”
Télérama, Emmanuelle Bouchez, November 6, 2010
“Under the fascinating, beautiful, composed images which the writer-director offers us, at an excellent rhythm, runs a unique question: has the child become a “product” in our society?”
Le Figaro, Armelle Héliot, November 10, 2010
