TICKETS
Single sector numbered seat €35.00
inspired by Gustav Mahler ‘s Fifth Simphony
a collective creation by la vie brève
written and performed by
Jeanne Candel, Caroline Darchen, Lionel Dray
set design
stage management and technical direction at the creation
lighting design
sound design
costumes
textile creations (organs)
assisted by
ceramic production
stage direction’s assistant
artistic collaboration
set building
physical preparation
stage management and technical direction
lighting operator
A room that has been destroyed by fire. Black has invaded the space, the furniture, the walls, the bed, the floor, the objects. Everything has burned. Another world, in gestation – earth, mud, water – recomposes itself.
Gustav Mahler‘s Symphony No. 5 is the matrix of this “collective creation” conceived by the company la vie brève. The music guides their steps, directs them in composing this musical and theatrical epic.
“What strikes and fascinates in the physical sense of the word, when listening to Mahler‘s Fifth, is this alternation between boundless humanity and something that could be classified as parody, irony”, says Jeanne Candel. Mahler includes in his symphony elements belonging to collective memory, a ferment of popular music that comes from afar, that reappears or rather appears, like small ghost orchestras, like echoes that evoke the depths of the soul.
“Demi-Véronique”, in bullfighting talk, is a movement in which the bull is completely enveloped by the bullfighter’s cloak and induced to make a sharp turn that stops its charge. In music, it could be translated into a pause, a suspension, from which everything can be transformed.
Founded in 2009 in Paris, la vie brève is an ensemble of actors, musicians, directors, set designers, costume designers and technicians that meets for periods of research and creation and evolves, according to the needs of the shows it proposes, in a continuous process of transformation. Collective writing is what gives shape to the ensemble’s creations: actors, musicians and singers are placed at the centre and considered as creators, authors and not just performers. The writing of la vie brève is polyphonic and focuses on the relationship between music and theatre. These two elements contrast, merge and together “weave” the action.
Production la vie brève – Théâtre de l’Aquarium
Coproduction Comédie de Valence – Centre dramatique national Drôme-Ardèche, Théâtre Garonne – Scène européenne à Toulouse, Théâtre de Lorient – Centre dramatique national de Bretagne, Fondation Royaumont, Théâtre de Nîmes – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national – art et création, danse contemporaine
With the support from Région Île-de-France, ADAMI and SPEDIDAM
The creation of the show has been supported by the Fondation d’Entrerpise Hermès within the New Settings program
The show was welcomed in residence of creation in the École des Beaux-Arts in Lorient and in the Théâtre du Soleil
Remerciements Clément Mao-Takacs, Loïc Nebreda, Amélie Billault, Clara Favriou-Delaunay for their involvement in the project since the beginning; Roland Decaudin and the team of the École des Beaux-Arts in Lorient; Étienne Lemasson, Charles-Henri Bradier, Astrid Renoux, David Buizard, Pascal Gallepe and the team of the Théâtre du Soleil for their welcome in residence; Patrice Riera, Roland Zimmermann, Florent Favier; Clément Vernerey for their help during the building of the set
duration 70 minutes
Under the patronage of
Theater Programme
Biographies
Jeanne Candel
After studying literature, she joins the Centre National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique (CNSAD) where she works with Andrzej Seweryn, Joël Jouanneau, Muriel Mayette, Philippe Adrien, Mario Gonzalès and Arpàd Schilling. From 2006 to 2011, she regularly works with Arpàd Schulling with whom she creates four shows.
In 2009, she founds la vie brève and stages with the company: Robert Plankett (Artdanthé, 2010); Le Crocodile trompeur / Didon et Enée, co-stage directed with Samuel Achache, adapted from Purcell’s opera and other materials (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, 2013); Le Goût du faux et autres chansons (Festival d’Automne, 2014), Orfeo, co-stage directed with Samuel Achache, adapted from Monteverdi (Comédie de Valnce, January 2017); Demi-Véronique, theatrical ballet inspired by Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony co- created and performed with Caroline Darchen and Lionel Dray (Comédie de Valence, February 2017); Tarquin, lyrical drama composed by Florent Hubert on a libretto by Aram Kebabijan (Nouveau Théâtre de Montreuil – CDN, September 2019).
In February 2016, she is invited to stage Brùndibar by Hans Krasa at the Opéra de Lyon. In the middle of the health crisis, she stages Hippolyte et Aricie by Jean-Philippe Rameau, conducted by Raphaël Pichon with the Ensemble Pygmalion (Opéra Comique, November 2020) and The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten, conducted by Léo Warynski (Opéra de Paris / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, May 2021). She is preparing for April 2022, La Nuit sera blanche based on A Gentle Creature by Fyodor Dostoyevsky directed by Lionel González (Théâtre Gérard Philipe, Saint-Denis).
She has a passion for in situ creations, in which the driving force of the creation relies on extracting tales, unconscious stories from preexisting places. In situ creations: Nous brûlons, une histoire cubiste, traveling show in the recesses of the Villeréal village (July 2010); Some kind of minster, a creation on a tennis court (Villeréal 2012); Dieu et sa maman, a performance in a deconsecrated church in Valence, filled with canoes, created and performed with Lionel Dray (festival Ambivalences, May 2015); TRAP, a performance in the lower ground floor of the theatre of the Comédie de Valence and in the departmental archives of the city (May 2017).
Since July 2019, she manages alongside Marion Bois and Elaine Meric the Théâtre de l’Aquarium, in the Cartoucherie, making it a home for creation dedicated to the intertwining of music and theatre.
Caroline Darchen
Caroline Darchen studied at the École du Studio d’Asnières with Jean-Louis Martin-Barbaz and the École Internationale de Théâtre de Jacques Lecoq. On stage, she performs in Jeanne Candel’s shows (Nous brûlons, Some kind of monster, Le Goût du faux et autres chsansons), Sylvain Creuzevault’s (Le Père tralalère), in her own creations (Entre chien et loup, Sagan), Damien Mongin’s (A memoria perduda), Antoine Cegarra’s (Léonce et Léna by G. Büchner), Thomas Quillardet’s (Le Repas by V. Novarina and Villégiature by Goldoni), Julie Deliquet’s (Amoprhe, La noce by B. Brecht), Karine Tabet’s (Auschwitz et après… une connaissance inutile by Charlotte Delbo, Mort accidentelle d’un anarchiste by Dario Fo), Lionel Gonzalez’s (Le Médecin malgré lui by Molière, Escurial by Michel de Ghelderode, Sganarelle ou le cocu imaginaire by Molière), Laurent Rogero’s (Loki, trompeur des dieux ; Héraklès, 12 travaux). In the movies, she acts in Les Bienheureux directed by Damien Mongin and in 17 filles by the Coulin sisters.
Lionel Dray
Lionel Dray studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique (2006-2009) and at the Conservatoire municipal du cinquième arrondissement in Paris with Bruno Wacrenier and Solène Fuimani. He worked on stage with Jeanne Candel (Robert Plankett, Nous Brûlons, Dieu et sa Maman-, Sarah Le Picard (Platonov, la nuit est belle ), Gabriel Dufay (Push up by Roland Schimmelpfennig), Sylvain Creuzevault (Le Capital et son Singe, Angelus novus – Antifaust), Yann Joël Collin (Le Conte d’hiver by Shakespeare), Pascal Collin (Qu’est-ce qu’on joue?), Frédérid Fresson (Pessoa), Damien Mongin (Montlabour), Adrien Lamande (Le Café by Rain Werner Fassbinder and Prométhée), Samuel Vittoz (Réception de Serge Valletti). In 2018 he creates, stages and performs in Les Dimanches de monsieur Dézert, adapted by the work of Jean de la Ville de Mirmont. In 2021 he creates with Clémence Jeanguillaume and la vie brève Ainsi la bagarre.