S 62° 58’, W 60° 39’
Peeping Tom
DANSE THÉÂTRE
Théâtre des Arts Créteil
Mercredi 03 & Jeudi 04 Avril 2024 - 20h00
PEEPING TOM
S 62° 58’ , W 60° 39’
PEEPING TOM deserves its claim to be a “dance” company! It exemplifies the best in the long tradition of dance in theatre, from dance in theatre’s early foundations in Greece, to dance’s present preeminence in many modern theatrical productions. Dance is an art form that touches on our deep emotions, effectively evoking common shared experiences and dreams. In its current production, S 62° 58’ , W 60° 39’, PEEPING TOM achieves epiphany with its audience. Founded by Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, the PEEPING TOM company has developed a hyperrealism based on a solid scenography, with identifiable characters. In the company’s current play, the dance actors effectively delineate their persona’s realities in voice and movement. Wonderfully created and played by: Marie Gyselbrecht, Chey Jurado, Lauren Langlois, Yi-chun Liu, Sam Louwyck, Romeu Runa, and Dirk Boelens, and assisted by Eurudike De Beul. The play’s concept, and direction by Frank Chartier, is an exquisite cornucopia of slapstick comedy and mock pathos sustained by a marvelous vulgarity of movement and spoken, sung, and screamed vocabulary. The play careens to its final, a near pornographic soliloquy, with a devil may care effervescence that mocks acceptable onstage behavior. Backed by: Soundscape, Raphaëlle LATINI, Lighting, Tom Visser, Choreography, Yi-Chun Liu, Costumes, Jessica Harkay, and technical creation and accessories, Filip Timmerman, the play is a must see! PKO
LIEU - Théâtre des Arts Créteil - Mercredi 03 & Jeudi 04 Avril 2024 - 20h00
Review by: Patrick Kevin O'Hara
Date line: Wednesday the 3rd of April, 2024
LA GRANDE MAGIA
Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota Eduardo De Filippo
MAC - Maison des Arts et de la Culture
DATES: February 29 - March 01, 2024
La Grande Magie directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, with the actors of the Théâtre de la Ville from Paris, presented his interpretation, of the immortal play by Eduardo De Filippo, recently at the Maison des Arts Créteil. Created in 1948 in post war Italy, Filippo’s play is a lyrical creation, wherein we are but players in a magical illusion that we break at our own peril. Complex and existential the world of LA GRANDE MAGIE, since its creation, has challenged players and directors the world over in its interpretation. Interweaving different social strata, directors and players are required to create a magical multi-dimensional reality, while making a relevant political comment on the actual world. Magic is a delicate art that requires constant practice, dedication, and intelligence to achieve its subliminal effect on our view of reality. Filippo knew this and benefited from the support of his family of players in his creation. Since its debut at the Espace Cardin in 2022, Demarcy-Mota has reworked and refined his vision of the inner meanings of the play in his theatrical presentation. He has had the faithful support of his cast of players in attempting to achieve a meaningful creative synthesis with Filippo’s vision of a postwar world populated with dangerous illusions of different conflicting realities, all possible yet still to be realized. Demarcy-Mota has improved the magic illusions in the play, the presentation has been endowed with sumptuous machinery, excellent staging, lighting, sound, and dedicated acting yet there is something missing. The missing element is magic legerity. Great illusionists produce their work with the light touch of an ease born of long arduous practice and a certain innate ability. Demarcy-Mota and his players are tenacious, and it is certain that time and conscientious practice will produce the ultimate illusion and relevance sought in his tribute to Filippo’s genius. PKO
LIEU -MAC - Maison des Arts et de la Culture du 29 février au 01 mars 2024
Review by:Patrick Kevin O'Hara
Date line: Thursday, February 29th, 2024
World Premiére: La Grande Magie - Espace Cardin
DATES: Dec 07, 2022 - Jan 08, 2023
La Grande Magie
LA GRANDE MAGIE, a play by Eduardo de Filippo, directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, is the work of an author with deeply rooted social convictions. It is not necessary to be a cryptologist to decipher Filippo’s meaning in his play that being of free will, choice, and belief. The Great Magic (English title) was written in 1948 after more than twenty years of fascist rule. Filippo comments that he was finally able to change his manner of writing. Liberated, from the strictures of an extreme right wing political domination and censorship, he was finally able to voice his humanist soul in an allegorical theatrical presentation, wrapped in the cloak of a magical comedy. Demarcy-Mota’s direction is deft and masterful, enacted by the acting company of the Théâtre de la Ville, composed of actors (for the most part) of long-standing affiliation with his direction and directorial vision. Given, brilliant writing, excellent staging, and direction: the questions remain, Do we care? Is the subject matter relevant today? Are we convinced by the actors and the director’s realization of Filippo’s free form poetic prose? These are questions that each audience must answer for themselves. Tuesday’s performance gave the impression of a certain fatigue, on the part of the actors. The magic was less than magical. Magic should be magical, not predictable, less it be judged inept and laughable, which it was not. Missing was the buffoonery, and lightness needed to carry the audience off into another world of imagination. The jilted wife’s choice of, to open or not to open, the suitcase, wherein her husband has been magically placed, is the center piece of the play’s plot and meaning. Placed in the context of a seaside resort hotel, where the elegant world-weary guests seek amusement, the magician, played by Serge Maggiani, purports to have made the philandering husband, appear, and reappear in the suitcase. He attempts to convince the wife that her husband is really in a tiny suitcase. She must make the choice of whether or not to open the suitcase. According to the magician, if she opens the suitcase and her husband is not there, then he will never reappear! If she doesn’t open the suitcase, then there will be always the possibility that he is really there and will someday make his magical reappearance. Filippo’s play: extrapolated into today’s real world, the question of free will and choice, maintains its relevancy. Yet to be seen is further efforts on the part of the actors to make the caring by the audience real.
A must see!
PKO
Date line: Tuesday, December 13th, 2022