© Julie Masson
Aucune idée
Christoph Marthaler
An intimate and funny performance staging the meeting and friendship between two creative minds. The Swiss director Christoph Marthaler and the Scottish actor Graham F. Valentine have forged a 40-year path of shared complicity, music, performances and jokes, with a pinch of elegant irreverence. In this masterful example of avant-garde musical theatre, they are joined by the Zurich-based musician, viola da gamba player and baroque cellist Martin Zeller. The work is presented under a humorously programmatic title Aucune idée (“No idea”). Trusting the artists’ understanding of musicality and rhythm, the dramaturgy makes room for improvisation and the unknown, producing absurd and grotesque moments.
Born in Switzerland, Christoph Marthaler first trained as an oboist and flautist before entering the theatre world. He took his first theatre steps at the École Lecoq, in 1968 in Paris. Inspired by his two artistic worlds, he created plays where music and words were in dialogue. His first musical show, Indeed, was born in 1980 in Zurich. He directed the Zurich Schauspielhaus from 2000 to 2004. His creations from the following years include: Groundings, a Variation on Hope (2004), Riesenbutzbach: A Permanent Colony (2009) and Papperlapapp, a play that emerged out of his role as artist associated with the Festival d’Avignon in 2010. In 2014, he created Heimweh & Verbrechen at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Hoffmann’s Tales at the Teatro Real Madrid and Lulu at the State Opera in Hamburg. As a director, he stands out for his innovative aesthetics, with plays that are firmly rooted in everyday environments such as waiting rooms, cafés, or pharmacies. Among other prizes, he was awarded the International Ibsen Award in 2018.
Info
Running time 80’
Performance in French and English with Italian and English surtitles
Credits
conception, direction: Christoph Marthaler
dramaturgy: Malte Ubenauf
scenography: Duri Bischoff
music: Martin Zeller
costumes: Sara Kittelmann
direction assistant: Camille Logoz, Floriane Mésenge
light: Jean-Baptiste Boutte
sound: Charlotte Constant
stage manager (on tour): Stéphane Sagon
light (on tour): Jean-Baptiste Boutte, Jean-Luc Mutrux (alternating)
sound (on tour): Charlotte Constant
dressing: Cécile Delanoë
set construction, accessories: Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
translation of surtitles: Camille Logoz, Dominique Godderis-Chouzenoux
production: Anouk Luthier
with: Graham F. Valentine, Martin Zeller
production: Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
co-production: Festival d'Automne, Théâtre de la Ville, Temporada Alta, Festival international de Catalunya Giron/Salt, TANDEM – Scène nationale, Napoli Teatro, Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne, Théâtre national de Nice, CDN Nice Côte d’Azur, Le Manège – Scène nationale, Maubeuge – Fondazione Campania dei Festival, Campania Teatro Festival
with the support of: Fondation Françoise Champoud, Pro Helvetia – Fondation Suisse pour la culture, Le Cercle des mécènes
texts and translations: Camille Logoz, Christoph Marthaler, Floriane Mésenge, Malte Ubenauf and Graham F. Valentine with quotations from literary and poetics works by Walter Abish, Kurt Kusenberg, Henri Michaux, Georges Perec, Kurt Schwitters, Edith Sitwell, Richard Wagner and Rosemarie Waldrop
musical compositions: Jean-Sébastien Bach, Léo Ferré, Antoine Forqueray, Thomas Morley, Camille Saint-Saëns, Franz Schubert, Rev. John Skinner, Richard Wagner, a popular Irish song
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© Julie Masson
© Julie Masson
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