CHILDHOOD(S)
[ so, this has to be a manifesto ]
Synopsis
Les Papavéracées
Collective stage writing
An empty stage. In the background, at the border between life and theatre, 2 men and 3 women are waiting. They are dressed like children. The music starts and memory surfaces. There, in between revisited versions of the Disney « little mermaid » and Nirvana, we can see the draft of a theatrical selfportrait. The one of a generation born in the middle of the 1980's. It's funny, it's tragic, it's living – it reaches the soul and the body !
Intentions
We didn’t make it unscathed from our encounters with the writings of Younes Amrani and Annie Ernaux. The “right” way of answering them is to do the same thing as them, with theater, our very own place. We are going to confront our own stories and our own writings, in an attempt to make a “common memory”. Childhood seems to be the right way of entering this piece of work. I have the feeling that stage writing will come before the text writing. I believe that it’s the right way to go when you work on childhood. Because if childhood is the body (the word child comes from the latin infans that means the one who does not speak yet), then, we will have to write with everything that makes the body (sensations, moves, shivers). The authors-actors will have to write with their “art of feeling” : playing. The words will come afterwards. But then, maybe, they will just be the right words of childhood(s).
Charlotte Le Bras – September 2020
“With this manifesto, I declare that my (self) social exclusion is over.”
[childhood(s)]
The play
CHILDHOOD(S) is the last play of our first work cycle. It comes after we “killed the actor” and after we “killed theater”. So, after that, we need to claim another possible way of being on a stage : joyful, committed, bold. But also, delicate. Going upstream the “great actors” of our time and upstream the non-professional actors propelled on stage - we made the collective experiment of becoming our very own “ready made”.
Distribution
Duration 1h
With Karim Abdelaziz, Arthur Dumas, Agathe Fredonnet, Caroline Lerda et Charlotte Le Bras
Stage director Charlotte Le Bras
Assistant Caroline Lerda
Lighting design Nathan Teulade
Soundtrack Les Papavéracées
Additional musics Calico Skies Paul McCartney, Le Choeur des esclaves Giuseppe Verdi, MmmBop Hanson, S’il suffisait d’aimer Céline Dion, Partir Là-Bas La Petite Sirène, You shook me all night long ACDC, Lacrimosa Mozart, Small Town Boy Bronski Beat, Smells Like Teen Spirit Patti Smith (Nirvana Cover)
Production
Papavéracées Productions, in coproduction with la Maison du Théâtre d'Amiens, with the support of la DRAC Hauts-de-France, la région Hauts-de-France, le conseil départemental de la Somme, Amiens Métropole (ongoing production)
Created in 2023