Philippe Genty
Before 1938: No recorded sightings of Philippe Genty.
1956 to 1957: Allegedly briefly seen in a Parisian graphic arts school.
1962 to 1966: His longest escapade, crossing 47 countries and 8 deserts behind the wheel of a Citroën 2CV, while shooting a film about puppet theatres around the world for UNESCO.
1967: His future partner Mary Underwood finds him in an advanced state of neglect.
1968 to 1975: Desperately searches for a method to organise his inner chaos. Produces shows for cabarets and television.
1976 to 1979: Gives up trying to organise his chaos. Joins a theatre company that has the same name as him, allowing him to continue his flight incognito. Tours in the USA, Japan, Africa, Australia, Great Britain, China, the USSR, France, South America, and India, among other countries...
1980 to 1983: Tries in vain to shake off the label of "puppeteer" or magician. Creates "Rond comme un cube" and "Désirs parade" with Mary Underwood.
1984 to 1990: Explores childhood scars and repressed memories as a source of writing. Creates Sigmund Follies and Dérives.
1991 to 1995: Experiments with the confrontation of two space-times: can images pose existential questions without the use of words? Wins the Critics' Award at the Edinburgh Festival. Creates Ne m'oublie pas and Voyageur immobile.
1996 to 1999: Attempts to make peace with his inner monsters. Creates Passagers clandestins, produced by Adelaide Festival in Australia. Creates Dédale before disappearing into a labyrinth of financial ruin. Sells his services to the Lisbon Universal Exhibition to bring the Company's accounts back in the black by creating and directing Océans et utopies in a covered stadium with 10,000 seats, 200 actors, dancers, circus artists and technicians: "a hook to catch an audience that never goes to the theatre."
525 performances between May and September. 3.3 million spectators.
2000: Makes peace with his monsters. Naïvely convinces himself that talking about it might help some spectators. Creates Concert incroyable as part of the "Grande Galerie de l'évolution" (the Great Gallery of Evolution) with 40 singers and 12 actors/dancers.
2000-2003: Performances of Sigmund Follies – now known as Zigmund Follies – start again with Eric de Sarria and Rodolphe Serres.
2003: Creates Ligne de Fuite. Experimental work on light. This show also marks another musical collaboration with René Aubry. International tour until October 2005.
2005: Performances of Zigmund Follies start again with Eric de Sarria and Philippe Richard. Rehearsals of La Fin des Terres start, with a national and international tour until the end of 2008.
2006: October/November: Master Class in Melbourne, Australia, at the Victorian College of Arts.
2007: Creates Boliloc inNovember.
2008: February/March: Master Class in Bariloche, in Argentina, organised by the National University of General San Martin.
Philippe and Mary regularly teach classes in France and abroad, and take these opportunities to stroke crocodiles, like in Australia, or touch the glaciers in Patagonia.
2010: Philippe and Mary recreate Voyageur Immobile, which is renamed Voyageurs Immobiles. The first creative phase is carried out in February, at the Maison de la Culture in Nevers, followed by a second phase in June at the Theatre du Rond-Point in Paris.
2012: Creates Ne m'oublie pas / Forget me not and La Pelle du Large / Dustpan Odyssey / La Llamada del Mar.
Mary Underwood
At the age of five, Mary Underwood's destiny was sealed when she went to see a Christmas show; Cinderella. Sitting next to her mother at the Theatre Royal Bath (Great Britain), she points to the stage and tells her mother that, one day, it will be her on that stage.
At the age of ten, she joined a ballet class thanks to the help of her parents, and every last penny earned doing odd-jobs after school goes towards paying for her lessons.
At 18, her talent as a dancer allows her to take an exam to become a Ballet Master. However, a bad (or good?) idea makes her realise that the experience of true movement lies elsewhere.
Against her parents' wishes, she gives everything up. Leaving behind her a safe and comfortable life as a teacher, she starts travelling the world, curious to discover where her quest for new borders will lead her. She works with several dance companies until, one day, she meets a young French puppeteer working on the same show as her, and she becomes fascinated by his "world."
Philippe Genty already knows how to use the talent of the person he has just met. Mary is to provide the rhythm and structure required for the creative and chaotic world of her new companion.
At the end of the 1970s, Mary finally performs at Bath Theatre, where she had seen Cinderella 30 years earlier. But that evening, her mother didn't see her dance; she saw her bring inanimate objects to life, making puppetry the art form it deserves to be.