Company

(1989-1993)

1989
"The first seventeen-scene play, on a single big stage. By re-reading my notes from the time, I can't see anything on the stage area and yet, with Dérives, systems are intuitively created, with a search for a new link between the spectator's imagination and what we show him...

Dérives is a dive into the world of a character searching for his identity, in a town full of chasms, exacerbated by the characters' constant change in scale...

In Dérives, a man wearing  a grey raincoat and bowler hat splits in two simply by doing a pirouette, then changes into three identically clothed individuals, who start a disturbing choreography, which is half-dream and half-nightmare.

I once again opt for a silent play, which brings us back to a conscious style. Kathy Deville and Christian Carrignon of the Theatre de Cuisine become our partners alongside Pascale Blaison, who cut her teeth with the ostriches; Gabriel Guimard, an actor and clown discovered on a course in Peru; and Éric de Sarria. He was the first of my contributors to really come from text-based theatre. We saw him playing the brother of the Brontë sisters under Vicky Messica at the Déchargeurs theatre, and his presence immediately intrigued me... Initially very sceptical about our methods, little by little, he was to become one of the company's most loyal members. An ardent and passionate team, constantly on the edge, testing new things and experimenting new approaches.
The rehearsals for Dérives last a whole year..."

Paysages intérieurs, pp. 142-149 © Actes Sud